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THE  CHILDHOOD  OF   FICTION 


--»<■ 


•THE 

CHILDHOOD  OF  FICTION-: 
A  STUDY  OF  FOLK  TALES 
AND  PRIMITIVE  THOUGHT 

BY    J.    A.    MACCULLOCH 

AUTHOR   OF    "  COMPARATIVE   THEOLOGY,"    '*  RELIGION,    ITS 
OBIGIK    AKD    FORMS,"     "  THE    MISTY   ISLE   Or    SKYE,"     ETC. 


^     OF  THF 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


NEW  YORK 
E.  P.  BUTTON  AND  COMPANY 

1905 


r-^IERAl 


Printed  in  Great  Britain. 


TO    MY    CHILDREN 

SHEILA 
E  L  S  P  E  T  H 

AND 

NIGEL 


PREFACE 

To  many  who  love  folk-tales  for  themselves,  and 
because  they,  of  all  forms  of  literature,  are  to  the 
eye  of  the  mind 

"  Magic  casements,  opening  on  the  foam 
Of  perilous  seas,  in  faery  lands  forlorn," 

I  shall  seem  to  be  no  more  than 

"  One  who  would  peep  and  botanise 
Upon  his  mother's  grave," 

because  I  have  dared  to  show  that  some  of  the  things 
which,  in  these  old-world  stories,  form  their  fascina- 
tion, have  had  their  origin  in  sordid  fact  and  reality. 
Yet  all  romantic  literature  is  also  a  criticism  of  real 
life ;  nor  does  it  take  away  from  our  enjoyment  of 
Scott's  novels  or  Tennyson's  poems  to  know  this.  I, 
too,  am  a  lover  of  folk-tales  ;  I  have  read  and  enjoyed 
thousands  of  them  ;  and  now  that  my  task  is  done,  I 
am  ready  to  begin  reading  and  enjoying  them  again. 
Age  cannot  wither,  nor  custom- — even  primitive 
custom — stale  their  infinite  variety.  It  does  not 
seem  to  me  that,  while  trying  to  explain  the  irra- 
tional incidents  of  folk-tales,  and  to  show  how  they 
have  arisen,  I  have  destroyed  their  romantic  fresh- 
ness. For  even  when  all  is  said,  nothing  can  detract 
from  the  marvellous  skill  with  which  the  story-weaver 


viii  PREFACE 

has  treated  those  incidents,  or  attenuate  the  atmos- 
phere of  old  romance  which  still  clings  round  them, 
after  we  have  understood  their  origin.  For  that  reason, 
throughout  this  work  I  have  never  ceased  to  regard 
these  stories  as  literature — the  literature  of  early 
man  and  of  primitive  people  wherever  found.  Hence 
this  book,  which  treats  of  primitive  thought  and 
custom  in  folk-tales,  has  been  called  The  Childhood 
of  Fiction.  And,  for  its  irnprimatur,  I  may  cite  the 
words  of  Sir  Walter — that  ''great  romantic,"  that 
"idle  child" — "A  work  of  great  interest  might  be 
compiled  upon  the  origin  of  popular  fiction,  and  the 
transmission  of  similar  tales  from  age  to  age,  and 
from  country  to  country."^ 

Sir  George  Douglas,  in  his  interesting  preface  to 
a  collection  of  Scots  stories,  complains  bitterly  of  the 
scientific  folk-lorist,  and  pleads  for  the  study  of 
folk-tales  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  story-teller 
pure  and  simple.  One  must  distinguish,  however, 
between  the  mere  enjoyment  of  literature  and  the 
study  of  it.  Study  of  literature  implies  research  into 
its  origins  and  the  influences  which  have  moulded  it. 
This  does  not  necessarily  detract  from  its  enjoyment 
by  the  student ;  nay,  there  are  students  whose 
enjoyment  is  keener  because  they  know  more  about 
the  particular  piece  of  literature,  than  others  who 
read  it  only  to  be  entertained.  Felix  qui  potuit 
rerum  cognoscere  causas.  So  with  folk-tales.  The 
most  scientific  of  folk-lorists  may  yet  enjoy  his  tales, 
though  he  has  been  bold  enough  to  inquire  into 
their  origins.  And  while,  because  he  has  put  away 
childish  things,  the  child's  delighted  wonder  is  lost  to 
him,  still  he  enjoys,  because  it  must  always  be  a  new 
wonder  to  him  how,  out  of  the  stuff"  of  common 
belief  and  custom  and  everyday  experience,  such 
a    rich    and    gorgeous    fabric    should    have    been 

^  Note  3D  to  The  Lady  of  the  Lake. 


PREFACE  ix 

woven  by  those  who  were  far  down  in  the  scale  of 
civilisation. 

"  To  a  mind  that's  scientific 
There  is  nothing  that's  terrific  " 

in  Sir  George's  complaints,  but  there  is  still  a  world 
of  wonder  in  the  tales,  upon  whose  origins  the 
scientific  folk-lorist  (if  he  must  be  so  called)  has 
attempted  to  throw  some  light. 

With  this  apologia  I  leave  my  book  in  the  reader's 
hands,  with  the  hope  that  he  may  derive  as  much 
pleasure  from  reading  as  I  have  done  from  writing  it. 

Portree,  Isle  of  Skye, 
December  1904. 


CONTENTS 


CHAP, 
I. 


II. 

•^IV. 

V. 

^VI. 

VII. 

VIII. 

IX. 

X. 

XI. 

XII. 

XIII. 
XIV. 

XV. 

XVI. 

XVII. 


Introductory  —  The  Antiquity   of    Folk-Tale 
Incidents       ..... 

Some  Folk-Tale  Incidents    . 

The  Water  of  Life     .... 

The    Renewal    of    Life    in  the  Dead  or  Dis 
membered      ..... 

The  Separable  Soul   .... 

Transforivution  .... 

Inanimate  Objects  with  Human  and  Magical 
Qualities 

Friendly  Animals  :  Puss  in  Boots 

Beast-Marriages  :  Beauty  and  the  Beast 

Cannibalism  :  Odysseus  and  the"  Cyclops 

Tabu  in  Folk-Tales— Bluebeard 


The 


Lost 


AND  Andro 


Tabu     in     Folk-Tales  —  Continued 
Husband  or  Wife  . 

The  Clever  Youngest  Son  . 

The   Dragon  Sacrifice  :    Perseus 
meda    .... 

The  Sacrifice  of  a  Child     . 

Jack  and  the  Beanstalk 

The  Origin  and  Transmission  of  Folk-Tales 

Bibliographical  Appendix     . 

Index        ...... 


I  ^ 
i6' 

52 

80 
118 
149 

188 
225 
253 
279 
306' 

325 
350 

381 
410 

432 

450* 

485 
493 


THE    CHILDHOOD    OF    FICTION 


CHAPTER  I 

INTRODUCTORY THE  ANTIQUITY  OF  FOLK-TALE 

INCIDENTS 

Folk-tales  are  the  earliest  form  of  romantic  and 
imaginative  literature,  the  unwritten  fiction  of  early- 
man  and  of  primitive  people  in  all  parts  of  the  world. 
They  represent  fiction  in  its  childhood ;  the  attempts 
of  primitive  men  and  of  savage  races  to  clothe  their 
impressions  of  the  universe,  their  ideas  and  beliefs, 
their  customs  and  manner  of  living,  in  a  romantic 
garb,  and  in  the  form  of  a  story.  Though  other 
causes  have  led  to  their  origin  or  have  moulded  their 
form  once  they  originated,  they  owe  their  birth  in 
great  part  to  that  universal  human  desire  to  listen  to  a 
story.  '*  Tell  me  a  story,"  cries  the  child  ;  and  in  the 
childhood  of  the  race  there  was  heard  the  same  cry, 
followed  by  a  generous  response  from  those  in  whom 
imagination  and  the  faculty  of  story-weaving  were 
most  active.  The  telling  of  folk-tales  amounts 
"almost  to  a  passion"  with  the  West  African  negro, 
says  Dr  Nassau.  All  know  the  tales,  which  are  told 
at  night  after  the  day's  work  by  the  best  and  most 
eloquent  reciter,  but  the  audience  never  wearies  of 
repetition.^  What  is  true  of  the  negro,  is  true  of  all 
savages.      Breathless    audiences    gather   round    the 

^  Nassau,  p.  330, 


2     THE  ANTIQUITY  OF  FOLK-TALE  INCIDENTS 

camp  fire,  or  in  some  public  place  in  the  villagfe,  to 
listen  to  the  tales  of  old  time,  embodying-  current 
beliefs  and  practices,  which  are  recited  by  the  old 
men,  by  priest  or  sorcerer,  or  by  some  recognised 
story-teller,  like  the  mediaeval  wandering  minstrel, 
European  peasants  have  had  the  same  passion  for 
folk-tales,  and  the  telling  of  them  occupies  the  greater 
part  of  the  long  winter  evenings  among-  Celts  and 
Basques,  Russians  and  Norwegians,  Germans  and 
Roumanians. 

How  universal  the  desire  for  a  story  has  been,  is 
proved  by  the  enormous  numbers  of  folk-tales  which 
have  been  collected  in  all  parts  of  the  world.  The 
efforts  of  the  brothers  Grimm  to  gather  the  tales 
current  among  the  peasantry  in  Germany,  inspired 
similar  efforts  in  every  European  country,  with  the 
result  that  vast  numbers  of  tales,  Russian,  Scandi- 
navian, Celtic,  French,  Spanish,  Italian,  Greek,  etc., 
have  been  brought  to  light.  These  are  the  unwritten 
literature  of  the  peasants,  and  it  might  easily  be 
supposed  that  they  had  originated  with  them.  But 
further  research  by  able  collectors  has  proved  that 
just  such  stories  are  told  in  abundance  amongf  savages 
and  barbaric  races  in  every  part  of  the  world. 
Chinese  and  Japanese,  Mongols  and  Indian  aborigines, 
Malays  and  Dyaks,  Indians  of  both  American  con- 
tinents and  Eskimo,  Negroes,  Kaffirs,  and  Bushmen, 
Andamanese,  Australians,  and  Ainos,  Maoris  and 
the  islanders  of  the  Pacific,  have  shown  themselves 
possessed  of  a  rich  and  varied  folk-tale  literature.^ 


^  A  comparison  of  the  literary  and  artistic  abilities  of  some  of 
these  peoples  is  interesting.  Those  who  possess  the  most  elaborate 
and  imaginative  tales  are  the  Red  Indians  {e.g.,  Zunis)  and  Polynesians, 
in  the  case  of  the  latter,  however,  the  stories  are  religious  myths 
rather  than  Mdrchen.  Neither  of  these  races  is  very  artistic  so  far  as 
direct  copying  of  nature  is  concerned  ;  the  Polynesians  are,  however, 
excellent  decorative  artists.  The  Bushmen  and  Eskimo,  true  rivals 
of  the  Palaeolithic  artists  (of  whose  powers  as  story- weavers  we  know 


MODERN  IDEAS  IN  FOLK-TALES  3 

This  fact  leads  us  to  suspect  that  such  stories  as  are 
told  amongf  the  European  peasantry  did  not  originate 
with  them,  but  in  a  far-distant  past,  when  the  ancestors 
of  the  European  races  were  themselves  in  a  state  of 
savagery.  The  ideas  of  later  ages  have  entered  into 
and  coloured  these  primitive  stories ;  comparatively 
modern  social  customs  and  names  jostle  those  of  a 
remote  antiquity  without  any  feeling  of  incongruity ; 
the  tales  have  a  firm  root  in  a  past  paganism,  but 
they  are  full  of  later  Christian  conceptions.  Tales 
which  bristle  with  the  marvellous,  and  introduce  us  to 
ogres  and  witches  and  enchanted  heroes  and  heroines, 
to  animals  and  things  which  talk  and  act  like  men,  to 
the  weirdest  and  most  irrational  customs  and  ideas, 
speak  also  of  gunpowder  and  tobacco,  of  cannons  and 
muskets,  of  cities,  palaces,  hotels,  coaches,  and  other 
things  of  later  civilisation  ;  or  make  the  most  evidently 
pagan  ogres,  monsters,  or  personages  of  mythical 
antiquity  indulge  in  church-going  and  other  Christian 
practices ;  or  refer  to  the  Sultan  or  Boney  in  the 
most  matter-of-fact  way.^  But  all  this  is  only  the 
veneer  of  a  later  age ;  the  material  of  the  stories  is  ^ 
old,  so  old  as  to  be  prehistoric. 

This  conclusion  is  amply  confirmed  when  we 
examine  the  incidents  of  the  stories.  Although  these, 
too,  are  coloured  by  the  thoughts  and  environment  of 

nothing)  in  holding  the  mirror  up  to  nature,  are  also  good  weavers  of 
tales,  though  none  of  those  are  so  beautiful  as  the  Polynesian  and 
Red  Indian  stories.  Chinese  folk-tales  are  least  romantic  of  all ;  in 
these,  as  in  their  art  products,  they  are  far  surpassed  by  the  Japanese. 
In  Europe  the  most  romantic  and  magical  of  all  folk-tales  are  the 
Celtic ;  the  Celts  were  once  excellent  artists.  I  have  discussed  the 
literary  style  of  folk-tales  in  the  concluding  chapter. 

^  Cf.  the  remarks  of  Campbell,  West  Highland  TaleSy  introduction  ; 
of  Jones,  Magyar  Tales^  p.  20 ;  and  of  Webster,  Basque  Tales,  p.  9. 
Dr  Nassau,  p.  331,  shows  how  the  introduction  of  cannon  and  other 
civilised  products  into  West  African  tales  is  due  to  the  cleverness  of 
the  story-teller,  observant  of  new  things,  and  introducing  them  in  place 
of  the  bow  and  arrows,  etc.,  of  the  native  tales,  to  give  greater  effect. 


4     THE  ANTIQUITY  OF  FOLK-TALE  INCIDENTS 

the  men  and  women  who  tell  them,  yet,  for  the  mos^ 
part,  they  lead  us  into  a  world  which  is  neither  moderr* 
nor  mediaeval,  western  nor  eastern.  Kings  ane 
princesses  have  the  most  unroyal  duties  to  perform 
their  kingdoms  are  wide,  but  by  walking  for  a  dar 
you  find  yourself  in  the  territory  of  another  monarch " 
a  maiden's  hand  is  won  by  the  hero  who  success^ 
fully  performs  some  extraordinary  tasks ;  giants  anc- 
monsters  carry  girls  off,  and  marry  them  against  thei;"^ 
will ;  to  women  are  ascribed  such  powers  as  the)? 
certainly  did  not  possess  in  historical  times  ;  canniba^ 
ogres,  giants,  and  fearful  monsters  abound.  Again^ 
they  lead  us  into  a  world  where  magic  and  sorcer;^^ 
are  the  affairs  of  daily  life.  Wizards  and  witches-" 
but  especially  witches,  are  never  far  off;  the  possessioi^ 
of  this  or  the  other  object  gives  its  owner  the  service^ 
I  of  powerful  attendant  spirits  ;  men  and  women  are  cu'^ 
j  in  pieces  or  die,  and  are  then  restored  to  life ;  the:^ 
practise  shape-shifting,  make  themselves  invisible^ 
'  travel  through  the  air,  arm  themselves  with  all  sort^^ 
i  of  magic  powers,  or  hide  their  souls  in  a  distant  place^ 
/  Life,  too,  in  folk-tales  is  subject  to  strange  customs*^* 
Bride  and  bridegroom  must  not  see  each  other's  face^^ 
It  is  dangerous  to  go  into  certain  places,  or  to  reves^ 
your  name.  Maidens  are  offered  in  sacrifice  t«^ 
monsters  ;  unions  with  animals  are  common  ;  there  i^ 
a  strange  preference  for  the  youngest  son  as  hi"^ 
father's  heir.  These  are  the  incidents  of  a  worl'^ 
which  is  certainly  not  that  of  the  European  peasant.^* 
If  we  take  up  a  modern  novel  we  find  that  it^^ 
incidents  are,  with  few  exceptions,  those  of  our  ow 
time,  or  of  a  time  sufficiently  near  to  be  known  to  mat 
The  writer  avails  himself  of  these  because  their  ver".^ 
familiarity,  as  well  as  the  use  he  makes  of  them,  w:^^^ 
appeal  to  the  interest  of  his  readers.  The  way  of 
man  with  a  maid  is,  of  course,  the  invariable  theme  ( 
a  novel,  and  is  as  old  as  the  hills.  Into  that  world-ol^o^ 
but  ever  fresh   topic   the  skilful   novelist  works   h^^* 


SAVAGE  ANCESTRY  OF  CIVILISED  RACES      7 

for  some  samples  out  of  his  tales,  ancient  or  modern."  ^ 
The  incidents  of  these  tales  reflect  the  customs  in 
question.  In  general,  all  savages  believe  in  magfic, 
shape-shiftingf,  tabu,  talking  beasts  and  inanimate 
objects,  and  in  totem-descent  from  animals ;  hence, 
their  folk-tales  abound  in  such  topics.  They  are 
based  on  the  well-known  customs  of  their  material 
existence  and  their  psychic  and  religious  life. 

We  return  now  to  the  folk-tales  of  the  European 
peasantry,  with  their  incidents  of  a  world  which  is  not 
that  of  the  peasant.  Where  and  when  are  we  to  seek 
a  world  in  which  such  incidents  were  common  or 
credible — in  which  the  story-inventors  could  take 
these  incidents,  like  the  modern  novelist  or  the  savage 
story-teller,  for  the  purpose  of  delighting  his  audience 
by  the  use  he  made  of  things  which  were  quite 
credible  and  common  to  them  ?  We  must  seek  it  in 
a  remote  past,  when  the  ancestors  of  our  European 
races  were  in  a  state  of  barbarism  or  savagery,  in 
which  they  did  and  thought  exactly  such  things, 
bizarre  and  irrational  though  they  be,  as  occur  in 
folk-tales.  All  races,  however  civilised,  have  passed 
through  a  stage  of  savagery  in  their  upward  march — 
a  stage  in  which  they  believed  that  beasts  and  things 
could  talk  and  act,  in  which  the  medicine-man  was 
all-powerful  and  magic  was  common,  in  which  society 
was  organised  on  different  lines  from  those  of  the 
present,  in  which  men  captured  their  wives  or  won 
them  by  feats  of  strength,  in  which  the  youngest  son 
did  succeed  his  father,  in  which  women  had  originated 
and  still  practised  the  elements  of  civilisation,  in  which 
the  chief  (the  king  of  later  story)  worked  with  his  own 
hands,  in  which  all  sorts  of  extraordinary  ideas  were 
easily  credited — as  that  the  dead  might  be  brought  to 
life  again,  or  the  soul  hidden  away  for  safety,  or  a 
man  might  mate  with  a  beast,  who  might  or  might 

1  Rink,  p.  86. 


8     THE  ANTIQUITY  OF  FOLK-TALE  INCIDENTS 

not  turn  into  a  woman.  The  world  of  our  folk-tales 
existed  long  ago ;  it  exists  still  among  modern 
savages.^ 

From    that    world,    then,    these    incidents    were 

/  derived,  but  as  it  gradually  gave  place  to  other  con- 

»  ditions,   the    incidents    themselves   remained  as  the 

theme  of  folk-tales,  partly  because  of  man's  innate 

love  of  the  unusual  and  the  marvellous,  partly  because, 

in  spite  of  changed  conditions  everywhere  around, 

.  many  of  the  ideas  and  customs  of  that  earlier  world 

I  continued  to  exist  as  superstitious  survivals — fossils 

\  we  might  call  them,  among  the  peasantry  everywhere. 

Hence,    European   folk-tales  exhibit  traces    of   two 

J  worlds' — that  of  the  irrational  past,  that  of  the  existing 

present  everywhere  tending  to    modify  the    other ; 

while  that  other,  in  turn,  has  its  marvels  magnified. 

This  process  of  magnifying  is  the  natural  result  of  the 

incapacity  of  later  generations  to  understand  things 

rooted  in  conditions   of   thought   and  custom  long 

forgotten,  which  had  once  made  these  things  quite 

intelligible.      The  more  inexplainable  they  were,  the 

more  mysterious    and  marvellous  they  were  made, 

on   the  omne  zg'no^um  pro  mirifico    principle,   until 

at    last    we    are  surrounded  by    an    atmosphere  in 

which     anything     may     happen.      Sometimes     the 

earlier    incidents    are    put    in    a    later    framework ; 

sometimes,    again,   existing    folk-tales    are    modified 

by     the     later    surroundings    in    the    way    already 

described. 

Thus  in  many  existing  European  folk- tales,  as  in 
those  of  India,    China,   or    ancient    Egypt,   various 

^  Most  collections  of  savage  tales  show  that  their  incidents  reflect 
everyday  belief  and  custom,  irrational  to  us,  but  credible  to  the 
savage.  I  may  refer  to  Dr  Nassau's  collection  of  what  he  calls 
Tales  of  Fetich  Founded  on  Fact,  as  an  instance.  Here  we  find 
embodied  in  a  tale  such  current  beliefs  as  that  a  witch  can  extract  the 
soul  and  eat  it,  or  leave  her  body  and  go  to  the  secret  orgy,  etc. 
See  his  i6th  chapter.     I  have  referred  to  some  of  these  elsewhere. 


.    I  VARIOUS  STRATA  IN  FOLK-TALES  9 

strata  may  be  observed.  There  is  the  most  primitive  / 
stratum  of  all — the  prehistoric,  corresponding  to  the  ^ 
present  day  savage  in  a  large  measure,  and  embody- 
ing those  irrational  ideas  and  forgotten  customs,  some 
of  which  have  been  enumerated,  and  which  may  be 
traced  back  to  a  time  when  they  were  by  no  means 
.inconsistent  with  existing  thought  and  life.  Next  we/ 
have  the  stratum  resulting  from  barbaric  civilisation, 
and  the  story-teller's  exaggerated  conceptions  of  it. 
It  gives  us  such  conceptions  as  those  of  jewelled 
caves,  golden  palaces,  gardens  with  fruit-trees  un- 
known to  the  botanist,  and  all  the  accustomed  wealth 
of  barbaric  pearl  and  gold.  These  are  all  clearly 
derived  from  the  surroundings  of  the  ignorant  classes 
among  whom  the  stories  were  told,  and  who  were 
easily  impressed  by  pomp  and  splendour,  which  at  the 
same  time  they  magnified  and  non-naturalised.  In 
this  period,  too,  just  as  in  the  earlier  period  the  stories 
had  been  told  of  divinities  or  of  chiefs  and  their 
children,  or  of  the  medicine-man  or  wise  woman — the 
most  impressive  figures  on  the  savage  field  of  vision- — 
so  now  they  were  told  of  kings  and  princes,  queens 
and  princesses,  wizards  and  witches,  who,  mutatis 
mutandis,  had  themselves  been  the  figures  of  the 
earlier  tales.  Next  we  have  the  later  strata,  consisting  i 
of  ideas  derived  ( i )  from  the  new  religious  beliefs  of  I 
the  time,  Buddhist,  Mohammedan,  Christian  ;  and  (2) 
from  the  ever-evolving  conditions  of  later  social  life. 
All  these  are  usually  combined  in  any  folk-tale,  but 
with  careful  examination  the  various  strata  may  be 
separated. 

It  is  an  interesting  question  how  far  Christianity  > 
has  modified  the  ideas  of  existing  folk-tales.  Less, 
perhaps,  than  might  be  imagined.  Polygamy  is 
sometimes,  though  not  always,  transformed :  the 
different  wives  of  one  man  becoming  simply  the 
jealous  enemies  of  his  one  wife.  The  pagan  under- 
world   of   the    dead   is  changed   to  a  subterranean 


10  THE  ANTIQUITY  OF  FOLK-TALE  INCIDENTS 

country,  sometimes  to  fairyland.^  A  darker  hue  is 
gfiven  to  the  belief  in  sorcery  and  in  those  who 
practise  it.  In  some  cases  of  Beast-marriagre  the 
actual  beast  becomes  a  human  being  temporarily  in 
beast  form,  but  we  also  find  this  in  tales  from  non- 
Christian  areas.  The  stories  of  Blue-beard  have 
become  strangely  altered  under  the  influence  of 
Christianity,  though  the  process  was  inevitable  when- 
ever increasing  civilisation  outgrew  or  stifled  the 
belief  in  concealed  fetiches  to  which  I  have  attributed 
the  origin  of  such  tales.  Stories  involving  child- 
sacrifice  have  become  changed  to  stories  in  which  a 
child  is  promised  to  some  being,  not  for  a  sacrifice, 
but  simply  to  be  under  his  control.  Beyond  these 
instances  the  tales  have  remained  largely  unaffected 
by  Christian  beliefs,  just  as  horrible  primitive 
practices,  dating  from  far-off  ages,  have  continued 
scarcely  unchanged  in  remote  districts  in  spite  of 
centuries  of  Christianity. 

Sometimes  the  incidents  of  early  folk-tales,  or  these 
folk-tales  themselves,  have  been  embodied  at  a  later 
age  in  the  epic  poems  and  sacred  books  of  various 
races.  Matthew  Arnold  said  of  the  Welsh  Mabino- 
gion  that  its  authors  had  been  pillaging  from  an 
antiquity  of  which  they  did  not  fully  possess  the 
secret,  and  this  is  certainly  true  of  the  folk-tale 
material  which  has  been  worked  into  it.  In  Homer, 
the  stories  of  Polyphemus  and  of  Circe  are  old 
folk-tales  swept  into  his  net  by  the  poet.  So  is  the 
tale  of  Jason  and  Medea  in  the  Argonautica.  In- 
cidents and  tales  occur  in  plenty  in  the  Finnish  Kale- 
vala,  the  Esthonian  Kalevide,  the  Hindu  epics,  as 
well  as  in  the  Ossianic,  the  Arthurian,  and  other 
romantic  cycles  of  later  times.     This  is  also  true  of 

^  See  p.  45.  Sometimes  the  mountain,  dangerous  to  climb,  on 
whose  top  is  the  world  of  the  blessed,  becomes  a  glass  mountain, 
which  a  hero  must  climb  to  attain  the  princess  who  lives  under 
enchantment  on  its  summit. 


MINGLING  OF  MYTH  AND  HISTORY         11 

the  Hindu  Vedas,  the  Babylonian  mythical  epics,  the 
Japanese  Ko-ji-ki,  and  other  ethnical  scriptures ;  as 
well  as  of  unwritten  mythologies,  Samoan,  Red 
Indian,  Negro,  in  all  of  which  early  variants  of  exist- 
ing- European  tales  are  found' — told  of  gods  and 
divine  heroes.  The  Japanese  Ko-ji-ki,  which  purports 
to  be  the  history  of  the  early  emperors,  and  of  their 
descent  from  the  gods,  mingles  actual  history  with  an 
earlier  mythology,  in  which,  as  in  the  history  itself,  are 
embedded  several  folk-tales.  We  begin  with  a  series 
of  divine  beings  and  their  doings,  and  gradually  find 
ourselves  brought  down  to  the  real  people  of  the 
everyday  world.  The  people  of  Uganda  have  a 
similar  unwritten  mixture  of  mythology  and  history, 
as  readers  of  Sir  H.  Johnston's  work  on  the  Uganda 
protectorate  will  remember.  The  process  is  that  of 
the  primitive  and  uncritical  historian  everywhere. 
Hector  Boece  ushers  in  his  kings  of  Scotland  with  a 
long  line  of  royal  names  as  unreal  as  Banquo  and  his 
ghostly  fellow-kings,  "mushroom  monarchs  everyone 
of  them,  sprung  from  the  fumes  of  conceit,  folly,  and 
falsehood,  fermenting  in  the  brains  of  some  mad 
Highland  seannachie,"  quoth  the  Antiquary!  The 
portraits  of  this  mythic  line  are  nevertheless  to  be 
seen  at  Holyrood  Palace.  Further  instances  of  this 
mingling  of  folk-tale  with  myth  and  history  will  be 
found  in  the  succeeding  chapters. 

So  far,  we  have  been  discussing  the  incidents  of 
folk- tales  and  their  origin.  In  a  later  chapter  I  shall 
have  something  to  say  of  the  origin  of  folk-tales  them- 
selves. Here  it  will  suffice  to  point  out  that  these 
separate  incidents,  of  which  any  folk-tale  usually  con- 
tains two  or  more,  were  once  separate  stories.  One 
incident  afforded  sufficient  material  for  one  tale  in  old 
times,  as  it  frequently  does  among  savages  now. 
Later  story-weavers  combined  these  incidents  in  vari- 
ous ways,  for  their  possible  combinations  are  endless, 
and  thus  arose  the  folk-tale  proper,  the  folk-tale  of 


12  THE  ANTIQUITY  OF  FOLK-TALE  INCIDENTS 

several  incidents,  which  gradually  became  stereotyped. 
But  even  that  may  have  arisen  at  a  comparatively 
early  date,  as  just  such  tales  are  found  in  ancient 
Egypt,  Greece,  and  Babylonia,  where  there  is  no 
doubt  they  were  even  then  extremely  old.  Some  of 
these  very  tales  have  survived  to  the  present  day  ;  the 
date  of  their  formation  may  have  been  as  far  off  from 
the  time  of  the  scribe  or  poet  who  used  them  as  his 
age  is  from  our  own. 

The  primitive  origin  of  the  stuff  of  folk-tales  is 
once  more  seen  by  a  study  of  their  ethics.  Now 
and  then  even  the  lowest  savage  stories,  especially 
Australian  tales,  serve  to  point  a  moral,  and  insist  on 
virtue  rewarded,  or,  as  in  the  Eskimo  story  of  Kag- 
sagsuk — the  ill-treated  orphan  who,  by  supernatural 
help,  vanquished  his  enemies — introduce  '*the  idea  of 
a  superior  power  protecting  the  helpless  and  avenging 
mercilessness  and  cruelty."  Other  examples  will  be 
met  with,  while  in  many  stories,  as  is  said  of  Red 
Indian  mythical  tales,  "theology,  religion,  history, 
and  all  human  duties  are  taught."^  Such  tales  as 
introduce  a  broken  tabu  are  ethical  where  they  serve 
to  show  the  dangers  of  disobedience,  especially  if  the 
tabu  affects  moral  conduct.^  Savage  virtue  is  by  no 
means  non-existent,  whether  in  fact  or  in  folk- tale ; 
the  sense  of  justice,  for  example,  is  tolerably  well- 
developed,  and  we  often  find  the  ill-used  hero,  though 
himself  far  from  being  a  virtuous  character,  coming 
into  his  own  and  outwitting  his  enemies,  as  in  the 
Youngest  Son  cycle.  So,  too,  the  Jealous  Sisters 
usually  come  to  grief,  and  such  a  group  of  tales  as 
that  of  Truth  and  Falsehood  is  highly  moral  in  its 
teaching.  But,  on  the  whole,  the  folk-tale,  savage  or 
civilised,  is  singularly  immoral  or  non-moral,  from  our 
point  of  view,  and  points  directly  to  the  rock  from 


^  Rink,  p.  93.     Bureau  of  Ethnology,  First  Annual  Report^  p.  43. 
*-*  Cf.  the  Kafir  tale  of  the  disobedient  girl,  on  p.  6. 


ETHICS  OF  FOLK-TALES  13 

which  it  was  hewn — cannibalism,  gluttony,  cruelty, 
lust,  and  slaug-hter,  cheating-,  slyness,  diabolical 
cunning,  brute  force  and  strength  abound,  and  are 
nearly  always  regarded  as  praiseworthy.  These 
reflect  the  crude  and  narrow  ethics  of  all  primitive 
society.  The  Puss-in- Boots  cycle  is  a  case  in  point, 
the  hero  obtaining-  rewards  and  riches  and  a  beautiful 
wife  by  fraud  and  lying. ^ 

Generally  speaking,  the  folk-tale  world  is  one 
where  ''  there  ain't  no  ten  commandments,"  and  where 
astuteness,  force,  and  cruelty  are  everything.  "  'Twas 
the  manner  of  primitive  man ! " 

Many  of  our  European  folk- tales  are  thus  hoary 
with  age  —  transcripts  of  the  ideas,  beliefs,  and 
customs  of  a  forgotten  world,  which  tell  their  story 
as  plainly  as  do  the  weapons  of  stone  and  bronze,  the 
monumental  remains,  or  the  rock-shelters,  hut  circles, 
or  lake  dwellings,  found  all  over  the  world.  Told  in 
widely-separated  lands,  modified  and  altered  by 
passing  from  mouth  to  mouth,  and  by  the  changes 
of  successive  centuries,  they  yet  preserve  enough 
likeness  to  each  other  and  enough  of  their  primitive 
form  to  mark  them  as  indeed  the  relics  of  an  earlier 
world.  Of  course  not  all  our  folk-tales  arose  in  this 
way.  The  literary  faculty  was  still  active  in  later 
ages,  and  must  have  invented  many  new  tales.  But 
when  this  was  done  they  did  not  always  oust  the 
earlier  tales  from  their  merited  popularity ;  indeed 
their  inventors  plagiarised,  perhaps  unconsciously, 
from  these  earlier  tales.  Others,  again,  are  quite 
plainly  derived  from  literary  sources  in  the  Middle 
Ages.  The  great  Indian  and  Arab  collections  became 
known  in   Europe,  and  gave  rise  to  similar  works 

*  Other  examples  which  suggest  that  kindness  is  rewarded  occur, 
e.g.,  in  the  New  Caledonian  story  of  Pivi  and  Kabo,  on  p.  192,  and  in 
its  Eastern  and  European  parallels  ;  while  the  good  result  of  not  being 
too  proud  to  take  advice  is  inculcated  in  the  Kafir  tale  referred  to  on 
the  same  page. 


14  THE  ANTIQUITY  OF  FOLK-TALE  INCIDENTS 

there.  Some  of  these  stories  became  the  oral  tales 
of  the  folk  in  Europe.  An  example  of  how  this  migfht 
occur  is  given  by  Dr  Jahn  in  his  Volksmdrchen  aus 
Pommern  und  Rilg'en.  A  servant-gfirl  learnt  by  heart 
the  story  of  Aladdin  out  of  an  abridged  version  of  the 
Arabian  Nights y  and  told  it  to  a  reciter  in  her  village. 
Years  after  this  man  told  the  story  to  Dr  Jahn,  who 
found  that  it  was  changing-  into  a  true  folk-tale  with 
necessary  adaptations.  Aladdin  had  become  a  kind 
of  Cinderella,  the  enchanted  garden  had  become  a 
Venus  garden,  the  roc's  ^^^  {Rockei)  had  changed  into 
a  man,  King  Reckei.  But  it  should  be  remembered 
that  already  literary  tales  must  have  had  oral  parallels 
in  Europe,  and  that,  in  the  East,  they  had  been  ulti- 
mately derived  from  oral  sources,  themselves  the 
offspring  of  a  distant  past.  In  the  same  way  the 
great  collections  of  novelle  found  in  Boccaccio's 
Decamerone,  Straparola's  Nottey  and  Basile's  Penta- 
meroney  contain  many  stories  which  are  nothing  but 
already  existing  oral  tales  embellished  by  these 
authors.  Perrault  did  the  same  for  some  of  the  folk- 
tales of  France.  His  collection,  when  introduced 
into  England,  had  a  marvellous  popularity  there, 
and  proved  fatal  to  many  of  our  native  tales,  some  of 
which  may  have  been  actual  versions  of  Perrault's 
stories. 

f  The  method  of  regarding  folk-tales  as  the  fossil 
Survivals  of  the  thoughts  and  customs  of  the  past, 
first  suggested  by  Farrer  and  Lang,  and  studied  in 
particular  cases  by  Hartland,  Gomme,  and  Frazer,^ 
is  now  firmly  established,  and  is  so  self-evident  that 
one  is  constrained  to  wonder  that  it  was  not  discovered 
sooner.  It  has  completely  overturned  the  theory  of 
Max  Miiller,  Cox,  De  Gubernatis,  and  Hahn,  that 

1  See  Farrer,  Primitive  Manners  and  CustomSy  1879;  Lang, 
Custom  and  Myth;  Hartland,  Science  of  Fairy  Tales  and  Legend  of 
Perseus;  Gomme,  Ethnology  in  Folk-Lore;  Frazer,  The  Golden 
Bough, 


METHOD  OF  THE  WORK  15 

folk-tales  are  the  detritus  of  Aryan  mythologry — a 
theory  so  absurd,  though  set  forth  with  marvel- 
lous ingenuity  and  eloquence,  that  further  refer- 
ence need  not  be  made  to  it.^  In  the  last  chapter 
the  relation  of  myth  and  M'drchen  will  be  discussed. 

In  this  volume  I  have  surveyed  the  more  irrational 
incidents  of  folk-tales,  and  have  interpreted  them  by 
the  methods  of  what  is  now  called  the  anthropological 
school.^  To  introduce  the  reader  to  this  method  I 
have,  in  the  next  chapter,  taken  several  examples  of 
unusual  incidents  and  shown  that  the  key  which 
unlocks  their  meaning  is  found  in  the  beliefs  and 
practices  of  past  ages,  exemplified  still  in  those  ofi 
present-day  savages.  The  succeeding  chapters  con-( 
tinue  this  method  on  an  elaborate  scale.  It  will  be 
found  that  there  are  few  of  the  irrational  incidents  of 
folk-tales  which  I  have  not  discussed,  while  the  more 
typical  forms  of  folk-tale  groups  have  also  been 
passed  under  review.  But  while  I  have  in  every 
case  given  as  many  references  to  variants  in  any 
given  cycle  as  are  necessary  to  show  its  wide  distribu- 
tion, it  has  been  no  part  of  my  task  to  exhaust  all 
such  references.  To  do  so  would  have  rendered  the 
book  tedious ;  apart  from  the  fact  that  to  trace  every 
variant  of  all  folk-tale  cycles  would  be  a  superhuman 
task!  Miss  Cox  has  done  this  for  Cinderella,  and 
her  brief  analysis  and  discussion  of  its  318  variants 
extend  to  a  portly  volume.  But  a  sufficient  number 
of  variants  are  cited  here  to  show  how  a  story  cycle 
preserves  its  main  features  as  it  is  met  with  in  the  most 
widely  separated  lands,  while  yet  it  presents  individual 
differences  of  detail. 

1  The  best  answer  to  the  whole  theory  is  contained  in  Lang's 
Custom  and  Myth;  Myth^  Ritual^  and  Religion;  and  Modern 
Mythology. 

-  Where  other  students  have  examined  incidents  by  this  method 
I  have  noted  the  fact,  usually  without  going  over  the  same  ground 
afresh. 


CHAPTER  II 

SOME   FOLK-TALE   INCIDENTS 

I  PURPOSE  to  pass  in  review  in  this  chapter  certain 
folk-tale  conceptions  and  incidents,  interpreting  them 
by  the  method  already  set  forth,  by  way  of  introduc- 
tion to  the  main  part  of  this  book.  Grouping  these 
under  the  heading-  of  (i)  Facts,  (2)  Customs,  (3) 
Practices,  and  (4)  Beliefs  or  Ideas,  we  shall  consider  (i) 
the  position  of  the  king,  of  women,  and  of  the  sorcerer 
in  folk- tales ;  (2)  marriage  customs  and  name  tabu ; 
(3)  some  magical  practices ;  and  (4)  the  ideas  that 
beasts  can  talk  and  the  dead  return  ;  and,  last  of  all, 
the  ''swallow"  myth. 

(i)  In  many  folk-tales,  while  later  conceptions  of 
kingly  state  have  been  added,  we  find  curious  incon- 
gruities. In  spite  of  the  splendid  trappings  of  royalty, 
the  king  may  have  to  go  out  and  earn  his  bread  or 
work  for  his  living ;  he  or  his  queen  saddles  his  horse ; 
his  daughters  engage  in  menial  tasks ;  they  marry 
suitors  of  low  degree,  who  have  often  won  them 
because  they  have  been  successful  competitors  in 
difficult  tasks ;  the  kingdom  goes,  not  to  the  king's 
son,  but  to  his  daughter  and  her  low-born  husband ; 
kings  are  as  plentiful  as  black-berries,  and  amid  the 
splendours  of  the  palace  traces  of  the  hut  or  hovel 
constantly  peer  forth.  So  in  the  Odyssey  Nausicaa  is 
discovered  washing  clothes,  and  kings  have  ''neat- 


KINGS  IN  FOLK-TALES  17 

herds  for  friends,  and  the  pig-stye  agfainst  their  front- 
door." Obviously  these  are  the  traces  of  a  simply 
organised  social  system,  and  the  stories  had  been  told 
first,  not  of  kings,  but  of  the  head-man  of  the  village 
community  and  his  family,  of  the  petty  chiefs  of  small 
tribal  groups,  not  far  removed  from  their  own 
"subjects."^  Later  ages  made  them  more  and  more 
regal  monarchs  in  the  stories — reflections  of  the  kings 
of  the  period,  but  the  traces  of  their  simple  origin  still 
cling  to  them.  Their  numbers  and  the  ease  with 
which  the  hero  passes  from  the  territory  of  one  to  that 
of  another,  are  easily  explained  on  this  theory.  It 
explains  why,  e.^^,,  Grimm's  story  of  The  Three  Birds' 
should  begin, — ''Many  years  ago,  there  lived  up 
among  the  hills  in  our  country  some  petty  kings^ 
It  explains,  too,  why  the  menial  should  marry 
the  princess- — because,  after  all,  she  had  not  origi- 
nally been  so  very  far  removed  from  him  in 
rank. 

Sometimes  the  king  offers  his  daughter's  hand  to 
the  man  who  will  best  perform  certain  tasks  involving 
skill  or  strength — itself  evidence  of  primitive  marriage 
customs.  We  shall  find  this  incident  in  many  of  our 
story  cycles,  those  of  the  Dragon  Sacrifice,  of  the 
Youngest  Son,  etc.  ;  it  occurs  as  an  actual  custom 
among,  ^.^.,  the  Dyaks  of  Borneo,  where  a  suitor  must 
have  taken  so  many  heads  before  he  can  obtain  his 
wife.-  But  in  many  European  tales  it  is  the  girl 
herself  who  disposes  of  her  hand  and  sets  the  task ; 


*  The  numerous  groups  of  barrows  and  tumuli  in  England  and 
Northern  Europe  suggest  local  federations  of  small  tribal  divisions, 
each  with  a  chief  or  petty  king.  The  barrows  are  the  burial-places  of 
such  chiefs  and  their  families. 

2  Ling  Roth,  ii.  i66.  In  one  of  the  tales  of  the  Fians  the  King 
of  Vedia's  daughter  has  to  be  fought  for,  and  afterwards  her  hand  is 
only  given  to  him  who  can  make  a  clear  spring  to  the  place  where  she 
is.  The  jump  incident  occurs  in  many  tales.  J.  G.  Campbell,  The 
Fians  (Waifs  and  Strays  of  Celtic  Tradition),  p.  225. 

3 


18  SOME  FOLK-TALEi  INCIDENTS 

her  father  has  nothing  to  do  with  it ;  while  the  king- 
dom passes  to  her  husband  (as  in  the  stories  where 
the  king  sets  the  task),  who  then  becomes  one  of  her 
kin,  and  lives  in  her  home  instead  of  taking  her  to  his 
house.  In  some  savage  tales  or  myths  we  find  a 
similar  state  of  things.  The  Dyaks  have  a  legend 
that  the  daughter  of  their  great  ancestor  would  not 
marry  her  betrothed  till  he  had  brought  her  a  present 
worthy  of  her  acceptance,  and  involving  the  doing  of 
some  doughty  deed.  He  brought  her  a  head,  and  she 
was  satisfied.  In  actual  practice,  as  weTiave  seen,  the 
Dyak  father  insists  on  this,  but  even  now  a  Dyak  girl 
will  herself  do  the  same.  So  in  some  Zuni  tales  the 
girl  sets  the  tasks  herself,  and  chooses  her  own 
husband,  who  then  lives  under  her  father's  roof,  and  is 
adopted  by  her  father  as  his  son- — a  reflection  of 
actual  practice.  In  two  stories  we  have  a  poor 
despised  youth,  or  an  ugly  man,  winning  the  proud 
maiden's  hand,  just  as  in  the  European  tales.  The 
Japanese  story  of  the  Fire-Fly's  Lover  tells  how  the 
Fire-Fly  lays  an  impossible  task  on  her  suitors.  "If 
they  are  wise,  they  will  not  try  to  perform  it ;  if  they 
love  their  lives  more  than  they  love  me,  I  do  not  want 
any  of  them.  Whoever  succeeds  may  have  me  for  his 
bride."  Hi-maro,  the  prince  of  the  fire-flies,  alone 
succeeds  in  bringing  her  the  fire  which  consumes  all 
the  other  insect-suitors  who  attempt  to  bring  it.  He, 
of  course,  wins  her.^  The  story  is  told  of  insects,  but, 
mutatis  mutandis,  was  told  of  human  beings  to  begin 
with.  Many  stories,  influenced  by  the  customs  of 
marriage  and  inheritance  of  the  later  patriarchal  age, 
have  modified  these  incidents,  but  in  others  they 
remain  with  little  change,  and  bear  witness  to  their 
origin  in  a  time  when  woman  possessed  power  and 
importance  —  the    age    of   the    matriarchate,    when 


1  Ling   Roth,   ii.    163,    166.      Gushing,  pp.   i,   107,  288.      Griffis, 
p.  40. 


SORCERY  IN  FOLK-TALES  19 

descent  was  reckoned  through  the  woman,  when 
knowledge  and  the  elements  of  civilisation  were 
peculiarly  hers,  handed  down  from  mother  to 
daugfhter.  This  also  appears  in  folk-tales.  The 
stupid  giant  or  ogre  has  a  clever  wife ;  the  hero, 
smart  as  he  is,  is  not  unusually  prompted  by  the 
heroine.-^  The  frequency  with  which  the  witch  rather 
than  the  wizard  appears  in  these  stories,  is  also 
significant.  :^The  bad  character  with  which  she  is 
invested  is  the  result  of  Christian  influences  as  well 
as  of  the  social  changes  which,  making  the  man  the 
centre  of  the  social  group,  sought  to  break  down  the 
power  and  knowledge  of  woman.  The  priestess  of 
the  earlier  civilisation,  in  whom  all  lore  and  religion 
was  embodied,  became  the  accursed  witch  of  the 
later  time.  But  frequently,  too,  the  witch  appears 
in  her  primitive  form  as  the  wise  woman,  or  is  even 
described  as  a  queen — reminiscence  of  her  important 
functions  in  the  mother  age.^ 

The  large  part  which  magic  and  sorcery  play  in 
these  tales  points  back  to  an  early  age  when  the  wise 
woman  or  the  medicine-man  was  a  prominent  figure 
in  the  social  system.  Mediaeval  witchcraft  used  many 
magical  practices,  but  it  is  far  from  responsible  for 
those  with  which  our  folk-tales  bristle.  Among  the 
magical  actions  which  we  discover  in  the  world  of 
folk-tale  are  the  production  of  anything  at  will, 
obtaining  complete  power  over  others  by  means  of 
charms  and  spells,  making  inanimate  things  speak 
and  act  or  take  any  form,  superlative  strength,  the 
possession  of  magical  weapons,  invulnerability  to  the 
most  deadly  arms,  the  power  of  shape-shifting,  as  well 
as  of  transforming  or  petrifying  others,  giving  drugs 
or  articles  which  will  produce  fertility,  raising  the 

^  Cf.  the  Transformation  Flight  stories,  infra^  p.  170. 

-  See  the  chapters  in  Pearson,  Chajtces  of  Death,  vol.  ii.,  on  these 
subjects.  They  form  a  lucid  and  complete  argument  for  the  existencje 
of  the  mother  age  in  folk-tales. 


20  SOME  FOLK-TALE  INCIDENTS 

dead  to  life,  magical  and  instantaneous  flight  through 
the  air,  and  so  on.  All  these  things  occur,  not  as 
^  une^tpected  or  unusual  incidents,  but  as  the  affairs 
of  daily  and  ordinary  life.  But  this  is  an  exact 
reflection  of  primitive  and  savage  life  everywhere. 
The  medicine-man,  or  wise  woman,  is  all  powerful ; 
magic  governs  all  men's  actions,  and  a  magical 
theory  of  the  universe  lies  behind  all  their  thoughts. 
There  is,  in  fact,  no  magical  occurrence  in  folk-tales 
which  could  not  be  amply  paralleled  from  savage 
sources,  while  savage  folk-tales,  again,  simply  embody 
the  magical  beliefs  of  those  who  tell  them.  All  this 
once  more  suggests  that  our  folk-tales  are  the  relics  of 
a  primitive  society  in  which,  as  with  savages,  magic 
was  an  important  factor,  while  the  frequency  with 
which  magical  acts  are  attributed  to  women — to  the 
heroine  or  the  witch — should  also  be  noted. 

(2)  We  have  already  seen  how,  before  obtaining 
his  bride,  the  hero  has  to  perform  certain  tasks. 
Sometimes,  however,  he  has  to  recognise  her  among 
several  girls,  all  dressed  alike,  or  alike  in  appearance. 
In  some  cases  she  warns  him  of  this  beforehand,  and 
tells  him  how  he  is  to  recognise  her;  she  will  make 
some  slight  sign,  or,  as  in  a  Danish  story,  she  will 
pinch  him,  or  she  will  have  some  small  peculiarity  in 
her  dress.  Other  stories  make  the  recognition  depend 
on  some  accident  which  has  happened  to  the  girl 
before — the  losing  of  a  finger  or  toe  joint  (as  in  a 
group  of  stories  which  will  be  discussed  later) ;  while 
in  some,  an  insect  which  has  promised  to  help  the 

•  hero  alights  at  the  psychological  moment  on  her  face. 

fin  this  act  of  choice  thus  elaborated  there  is  the  relic 
of  a  primitive  marriage  ceremony,  and  one  which  still 
survives  in  some  parts  of  Europe.  In  Transylvania 
the  bride  and  two  other  women  hide  behind  a  curtain, 
and  the  man  has  to  guess  which  is  the  bride — all 
three  trying  to  confuse  him.     At  peasant  weddings  in 


MARRIAGE  IN  FOLK-TALES  21 

Lorraine  the  bride  and  three  girls  are  all  dressed  alike, 
so  as  to  make  recognition  difficult.  If  the  bridegroom 
guesses  right  at  first,  he  dances  with  the  bride  all 
night ;  otherwise  he  must  make  the  other  girls  his 
partners.^  Sometimes,  as  in  Abyssinia,  at  the 
marriage  of  a  princess,  her  sister  is  dressed  exactly  as 
she  is ;  elsewhere,  the  bride  is  surrounded  by  several 
girls  (Zulus,  the  people  of  Celebes,  Malays,  Egyptians).^ 
(These,  as  well  as  the  folk-tale  incident  of  the  recog- 
nition of  the  bride,  point  back  to  a  primitive 
practice  of  hiding  her  among  others  of  her  own 
sex,  so  as  to  make  it  difficult  for  the  man  to  obtain 
her ;  not  as  a  task,  however,  but  in  reality  as  a 
cerompny  to  lessen  the  unknown  dangers  which 
to  the  primitive  mind  were  supposed  to  lurk  in 
marriage.  The  modern  custom  of  providing  the 
bride  with  a  troop  of  bridesmaids  is  a  relic  of  this 
primitive  ceremony. 

Another  relic  of  primitive  sexual  relations  is  found 
in  the  many  stories  in  which  an  ogre  or  dwarf  or 
monster  steals  a  maiden  away  from  her  home  and 
forcibly  marries  her.  The  girl  is  usu^ly  a  beautiful 
princess,  who  is  rescued  by  the  hero/  It  is  legitimate 
to  see  here  a  reminiscence  of  what  must  frequently  have 
happened  when  a  higher  and  a  lower  race  came  into  con- 
tact within  the  same  region.  The  men  of  the  lower  race 
would  covet  the  fairer  women  of  the  higher  race,  and 
abduct  them  to  the  remote  and  wild  districts  whither 
they  had  been  driven.  As  time  went  on,  the  memory 
of  these  acts  made  the  men  of  the  lower  race  assume 
gigantic  or  horrible  shapes,  while  the  women  became 
ever  more  lovely  and  ever  higher  in  rank.    Sometimes, 

*  E.  Gerard,  i.  185.  Gomme,  Folk-Lore  Relics^  p.  232.  Mrs 
Gomme  suggests  that  one  form  of  "  Kiss  in  the  Ring,"  in  which  the 
girl's  face  is  covered  with  a  shawl,  and  the  man  has  to  guess  who  she 
is,  is  also  a  relic  of  such  customs.    See  Windle,  Life  in  Early  Britain^ 

pp.  3-4. 

-  Crawley,  p.  338. 


22  SOME  FOLK-TALE  INCIDENTS 

however,  the  abductor  is  the  king  of  elf-land,  as  in 
the  English  story  of  Childe  Rowland,  who  rescues  his 
sister,  Burd  Ellen, ^  from  the  fairy-mound,  whither  the 
elf-king  had  carried  her.  If  fairies  were  once  a 
real  race,  living  underground  and  annoying  in  every 
possible  way  the  race  who  had  dispossessed  them, 
this  story  also  takes  rank  with  the  others.  The 
actual  deeds  of  the  lower  and  hostile  race  became  the 
fictitious  incidents  told  of  fairies  and  dwarfs,  giants 
and  monsters  ;  for,  as  Emerson  says,  "  time  dissipates 
to  shining  ether  the  solid  angularity  of  facts."  Such 
thefts  of  women  are  common  wherever  hostile  tribes 
are  found  living  in  contact ;  but  the  most  repulsive 
form  of  it  known  to  me  is  that  of  the  Darien  tribes, 
who  cohabited  with  their  captives  and  brought  up 
the  children  till  they  were  thirteen,  when  they  ate 
both  them  and  their  mothers.-  The  incident  of  the 
capture  of  a  mother,  sister,  or  lover  occurs  in  some  of 
the  Youngest  Son  cycle  of  tales.  Here  is  a  Red 
Indian  story  which,  in  some  respects,  is  a  close 
parallel  to  them.  Stone  Shirt  killed  Sikor  (the 
Crane),  and  carried  off  his  wife.  She  left  a  child 
behind  her,  and  to  him  a  ghost  revealed  all.  The 
boy  resolved  to  enlist  all  nations  in  his  cause,  but 
first  bade  his  grandmother  cut  him  in  two.  From 
the  two  pieces  sprang  two  boys.  They,  with  the  help 
of  various  animals,  collected  a  vast  army  of  people, 
whom  they  gave  to  drink  out  of  a  magical  cup,  which 
always  remained  full.  Arrived  at  the  realms  of  Stone 
Shirt,  the  boys  transformed  themselves  into  doves  in 
order  to  see  two  maidens  bathing  in  a  pond.  The 
girls  captured  them,  and  carried  them  to  their  father, 
Stone  Shirt,  who  would  fain  have  killed  them,  but  at 
his  daughters'  entreaty,  let  them  go.  Next .  they 
found  their  mother,  and  put  her  in  a  place  of  safety ; 


^  Jacobs,  English  Fairy  Tales. 

2  Hakluyt  Society,  Cieza  de  Leon,  p.  50  seq. 


THE  TRUE  BRIDE  28 

after  which  they  transformed  themselves  into  mice, 
and  gfnawed  the  string's  of  the  invincible  magic  bows 
of  Stone  Shirt's  daughters.  When  morning  came, 
Stone  Shirt  walked  out  of  his  tent  and  sat  down  on 
the  rock  under  which  the  boys'  friend  Togoa,  the 
rattle-snake,  was  hiding.  He  sunk  his  fangs  into  the 
flesh  of  the  ogre,  who  called  on  his  daughters  for  help. 
But  their  bows  were  of  no  avail,  and  they  with  their 
father,  perished.  Although  Stone  Shirt  is  a  mythic 
figure,  the  incident  of  the  theft  is  obviously  based  on 
native  experience.^ 

A  large  number  of  stories  relate  how  the  true 
bride  has  her  place  taken  by  another  woman  until 
the  imposture  is  discovered.  Of  this  there  are  four 
distinct  types.  In  an  Albanian  story,  a  girl  with  her 
servant  is  sent  by  her  mother  to  a  place  where  the 
king  will  pass,  in  hope  that  he  will  be  struck  with  her 
charms  and  marry  her.  The  servant  pushes  her  into 
a  well,  and  becomes  the  king's  wife.  Meanwhile,  the 
heroine  has  been  taken  care  of  by  the  negress  queen 
who  reigns  beneath  the  well,  and  when  at  last  the 
king  comes  to  her  land,  she  tells  him  the  girl's  story. 
Then  he  marries  her,  and  cuts  the  servant  in  pieces.^ 
This  is  one  type.  In  the  next,  represented  by  the 
Norse  tale  of  Bushy  Bride,  the  g-irl  whose  portrait 

^  Smithsonian  Institution,  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  Report^  i.  47.  In 
spite  of  a  certain  likeness  to  some  European  tales  {e.g.^  the  Russian 
story  of  the  Norka,  p.  350),  there  is  no  doubt  this  tale  is  original  and 
"  honest  Injun."  It  is  an  excellent  instance  of  how  a  comparatively 
elaborate  savage  folk-tale  arises  out  of  current  experiences  and 
beliefs — capture  of  women,  animal  help,  transformation,  and  magic — 
the  result  being  a  tale  which  might  easily  be  supposed  to  be  borrowed 
from  outside  sources.  The  boys,  as  doves  watching  the  girls  bathing 
and  themselves  being  captured,  looks  like  an  inversion  of  the  Swan- 
maiden  incident. 

2  Dozon,  p.  57.  Cf.  the  Fjort  story  already  cited,  p.  5,  and  one  in 
the  Japanese  Ko-ji-ki  (sect.  Ixxvii.,  p.  204),  where  an  emperor  sends 
his  son  to  bring  two  girls,  of  whose  beauty  he  has  heard.  The  son 
marries  them  himself,  substituting  two  others  for  them.  For  a  further 
discussion  of  this  cycle,  see  chap.  vi. 


24  SOME  FOLK-TALE  INCIDENTS 

the  king"  has  seen  has  her  place  taken  by  her  step- 
sister, and  the  king,  disappointed  at  the  latter's 
ugliness,  punishes  the  true  bride  s  brother.  Then 
follows  the  Incident  of  the  true  bride  appearing  three 
times  In  the  king's  house  reproaching  "ugly  Bushy 
Bride,"  and  her  capture  by  the  king,  who  destroys 
the  false  bride  and  her  mother/  In  a  third  type,  like 
the  Russian  story  of  Princess  Marya,  the  substitution 
by  the  stepmother  occurs  only  when  the  true  bride's 
child  Is  born.  She  is  turned  into  a  goose,  and  also 
appears  in  the  palace,  taking  off  her  feather  dress  and 
suckling  her  child.  The  last  time  the  king  seizes  the 
dress  and  burns  It,  grasps  his  true  wife,  who  turns 
Into  several  shapes  and  struggles  to  be  free,  but  finally 
resumes  her  own  form,  and  is  happily  restored  to  her 
husband.^  A  fourth  type  Is  represented  by  an  Italian 
story,  in  which  the  girl's  sisters  pluck  out  her  eyes  and 
cut  off  her  hands  before  ejecting  her  from  the  palace. 
One  of  them  takes  her  place  and,  becoming  enceinte, 
wishes  for  figs,  then  for  fish.  A  friendly  serpent  tells 
the  heroine  of  this ;  she  obtains  them  and  sends  a 
friend  to  the  palace  with  them,  bidding  her  ask  for  a 
pair  of  eyes  and  hands  In  exchange.  When  the  true 
bride  has  thus  recovered  her  missing  members  and 
been  healed,  the  prince  recognises  her.^ 

An    interesting    Basuto    story,    which    in    some 

1  Dasent,  p.  405. 

2  Ralston,  p.  183.  Cf.  an  Esthonian  story,  where  the  mother  is 
changed  into  a  wolf  when  her  child  is  born,  and  the  witch's  daughter 
takes  her  place.  The  nurse  takes  the  child  for  a  walk,  the  wolf 
follows  them,  and  all  is  discovered.     Kirby,  ii.  45. 

3  Comparetti,  No.  25.  Cf.  2^  Lorraine  variant,  Cosquin,  ii.  42. 
There  are  also  Greek  (Hahn,  No.  28),  Russian  (Gubernatis,  Z.M.^  i. 
218),  Catalan  {Rondallayre,  iii.  14),  and  Sicilian  (Pitre,  No.  62) 
variants,  but  in  all  another  woman,  not  the  bride's  sister,  takes  her 
place.  Cf.  the  Abandoned  Wife  cycle,  p.  67  infra.  See  also  p.  90 
for  a  similar  bargain,  and  the  Kashmir  tale  in  the  chapter  on  the 
sacrifice  to  a  Dragon.  In  an  early  version  of  Merlin,  Guinevere's 
foster-sister  is  nearly  substituted  for  hersqlf  on  the  bridal  night,  and 
later  usurps  her  place.     Saintsbury,  Flourishing  of  Romance,  p.  no. 


A  BASUTO  TALE  26 

respects  is  a  parallel  to  the  Fjort  impostor  story  already 
cited,  has  a  link  of  connection  with  all  these  groups. 
A  mother  sends  her  daughter  to  her  sister's  village, 
where  she  will  become  the  wife  of  her  sister's  husband, 
but  cautions  her  not  to  look  behind.  She  disobeys 
the  injunction,  and  that  moment  is  joined  by  a  witch, 
who  persuades  her  to  exchange  dresses  with  her. 
Arrived  at  the  village,  she  personates  the  girl,  who  is 
sent  every  day  to  watch  the  corn.  There  she  sings 
her  song  telling  her  woes  ;  an  old  woman  watching 
with  her  tells  all  to  the  husband,  who  comes  secretly 
and  hears  for  himself.  The  witch  is  then  killed,  but 
a  pumpkin  grows  up  on  the  spot,  and  when  the  girl 
has  a  child,  drops  off  its  stalk  and  beats  her.  The 
pumpkin  is  burned  ;  a  thistle  springs  up,  and  resumes 
this  savage  conduct ;  it,  too,  is  burned,  but  becomes 
a  pumpkin  seed,  which  bites  the  child.  The  hus- 
band at  last  catches  this  seed,  grinds  it  to  powder 
and  throws  it  into  the  fire,  and  there  is  an  end 
ofit.i 

There  are  other  primitive,  as  well  as  European 
and  Asiatic,  versions  of  all  these  types.  ^  /How  are  we 
to  account  for  the  incident  of  the  substitution  ?  Here, 
again,  we  may  point  to  actual  marriage  ceremonial?. 
Let  us  first  note  that  among  the  peasantry  of  Europe 
(Brittany,  Roumania,  Sweden,  Poland,  and  Esthonia), 
as  among  the  Beni-Amer  of  Abyssinia,  it  is  sometimes 
usual  to  substitute  a  false  bride  for  the  true  one 
several  times  running,  before  the  bridegroom  is  finally 


^  Jacottet,  p.  yS.  Cf.  a  Zulu  version  in  Callaway,  p.  296.  The 
witch  has  a  tail,  which  uncurls  at  night  and  devours  all  the  food 
within  reach.  According  to  widespread  belief,  vampires,  cannibal 
demons,  witches,  etc.,  are  not  properly  dead  unless  they  are  completely 
burned,  and  often  survive  in  a  new  form,  insect  or  other.  See 
examples  on  pp.  102,  130.  In  the  chapter  on  the  Dismembered  coming 
to  life,  many  instances  of  the  dead  turning  into  a  tree  will  be 
found. 

^  For  many  references,  see  Miss  Cox's  Cinderella^  p.  478. 


26  SOME  FOLK-TALE  INCIDENTS 

allowed  to  depart  with  his  wife.-^  This  has  become  a 
mere  game ;  once  it  was  a  serious  practice,  intended, 
like  the  choosing  of  the  bride  from  among  several 
women,  to  neutralise  the  dangers  of  marriage.  It  is 
but  part  of  a  larger  group  of  customs  in  which  (as  we 
shall  see  later  in  discussing  the  Cupid  and  Psyche^ 
tales)  the  bridegroom  must  not  see  his  wife  or  she  her 
husband  on  the  wedding-night,  or  for  some  time  after, 
or  until  the  first  child  is  born.  Customs  such  as  these 
would  easily  suggest  the  possibility  of  another  woman, 
in  love  with  the  bridegroom,  or  for  ulterior  ends, 
getting  rid  of  the  true  bride  and  taking  her  place. 
Indeed,  I  see  no  reason  to  doubt  that  such  an  incident 
may  actually  have  taken  place.  Other  incidents  would 
then  be  worked  into  the  story,  which  would  receive  an 
imaginative  setting,  and  various  types  would  easily  be 
evolved. 

Leaving  marriage  ceremonies  we  may  pass  to 
another  custom,  that  of  the  Name  tabu,  which  we 
shall  consider  as  it  occurs  in  two  groups  of  stories. 
The  first  group  has  an  immense  number  of  variants, 
differing  in  details,  but  all  having  the  same  central 
incident.  I  shall  cite  a  Magyar  version.  A  girl  was 
so  lazy  that  her  mother  scolded  her  every  day.  A 
prince  passing  by  asked  what  was  the  matter,  and  the 
mother,  concealing  the  truth,  said  her  daughter  span 
so  much  that,  like  Oliver  Twist,  she  always  asked  for 
more.  The  prince  took  her  away,  as  she  was  very 
pretty,  and  said  he  would  marry  her  if  she  span  a  shed 
full  of  flax  in  a  month.  For  three  weeks  the  girl  did 
nothing  but  bewail  her  lot.  Then  a  little  man 
appeared,  and  offered  to  spin  it  all  on  condition  that 

1  Crawley,  op.  cit.^  p.  337.  E.  Gerard,  i.  253.  Cf.  Leah  given  in 
place  of  Rachel  to  Jacob.  Though  the  reason  for  the  substitution 
alleged  by  their  father  is  that  the  younger  may  not  be  given  before 
the  first-born  (a  custom  which  also  prevailed  among  the  Celts  of 
Ireland,  Rivue  Celtique^  xiii.  37),  it  may  also  have  been  connected  with 
the  practice  spoken  of  above. 


TOM-TIT-TOT  27 

if  she  did  not  find  out  his  name  by  the  end  of  the 
week  he  would  carry  her  off.  Agreed !  During-  the 
week  the  girl  asked  a  servant  what  the  news  was,  and 
learned  that  he  had  seen  a  little  man  in  a  wood 
spinning  and  singing, 

"  My  name  is  Dancing  Vargaluska, 
My  wife  will  be  good  Spinster  Sue  !  " 

The  end  of  the  week  came,  the  flax  was  spun,  the  old 
man  was  ready  to  carry  off  the  girl,  when  she  cried, 
'*  If  I  am  not  mistaken,  your  name  is  Dancing  Varga- 
luska," and  on  this  he  rushed  off  in  a  furious  temper. 
The  prince  married  the  girl,  and  learning  from  three 
old  women  present  at  the  wedding  that  they  had 
become  so  ugly  from  spinning  so  much,  he  forbade 
her  ever  to  touch  a  wheel  again,  to  her  intense 
delight. 

Every  European  country  furnishes  variants  of  this 
tale,  of  which  the  English  **  Tom-Tit-Tot "  must  be 
familiar  to  every  one  ;  in  some  the  mysterious  being 
is  not  a  dwarf  or  fairy,  but  the  devil ;  sometimes  the 
girl  has  to  remember  a  name  already  known ;  in 
others,  like  Grimm's  Rumpelstiltskin,  she  has  to 
promise  her  first  child  in  the  event  of  the  name  not 
being  guessed.  There  are  other  stories,  Welsh  and 
Scots,  in  which  a  poor  widow  is  assisted  by  the  fairy, 
who  claims  as  reward  her  baby  if  she  does  not  dis- 
cover the  fairy's  name  by  a  certain  time.  This  is,  of 
course,  the  well-known  Scots  story  of  Whuppity- 
stoorie.^ 

^  The  Magyar  tale  is  in  Jones,  p.  46.  Several  French  as  well  as 
Austrian,  Lettish,  Slovak,  Tyrolese,  Sicilian,  and  Icelandic  versions 
are  cited  in  Cosquin,  i.  268.  For  a  Swedish  variant,  see  Thorpe, 
Y.T.S.,  p.  168  ;  Basque,  Webster,  p.  56  ;  the  English  Tom-Tit-Tot  is 
given  in  County  Folk-Lore  (Suffolk,  p.  43) ;  see  also  Clodd's  volume, 
Tom-Tit-Tot,  The  Welsh,  Highland,  and  Scots  variants  are  in 
Rhys,  ii.  583  ;  Campbell,  Superstitions^  p.  147  ;  and  Chambers,  p.  221. 
There  is  a  curious  Scots  version,  with  helpful  and  kindly  fairies,  in 


28  SOME  FOLK-TALE  INCIDENTS 

The  second  group  may  be  illustrated  by  an 
Icelandic  tale.  A  farmer  was  told  by  the  bishop  to 
build  a  church  within  a  certain  time.  A  stranger 
offered  to  help  him,  the  payment  being-  that  he  must 
g-ive  him  his  little  son,  if  he  did  not  find  out  the 
stranger's  name  by  the  time  the  work  was  completed. 
Wandering  sadly  in  the  fields  as  the  building  was 
about  to  be  finished,  he  lay  down  by  a  grassy  mound. 
There  he  heard  a  woman's  voice  singing  to  her  child 
within  the  mound, 

"  Soon  will  thy  father  Finnur  come  from  Reynir, 
Bringing  a  little  playmate  for  thee  here." 

Jumping  up  he  rushed  to  the  church  and  found  the 
man  nailing  on  the  last  plank.  ''Well  done,  friend 
Finnur,"  he  cried,  *'how  soon  you  have  finished  your 
work."  At  that  moment  Finnur  disappeared  and  was 
never  seen  again. 

This  story,  which  is  told  of  Reynir  Church,  is  wide- 
spread among  Scandinavian  and  Teutonic  peoples, 
and  is  usually  attached  to  some  particular  building,  as 
Drontheim  Cathedral  in  Sweden,  or  Eckwadt  Church 
in  Germany.  There  the  helper  was  a  cannibalistic 
troll,  for  the  mother  is  heard  hushing  her  child  with 
the  words,  "To-morrow  comes  thy  father  Zi,  with 
Christian  blood  for  thee."  Frequently  the  builder 
leaves  the  little  bit  of  work  unfinished,  and  the  story 
is  then  told  to  explain  why  that  particular  part  of  the 
building  was  not  completed.  The  same  tale  is  told  of 
St  Olaf  and  a  giant,  who,  when  the  saint  called  him 


Douglas,  Scottish  Fairy  Tales,  p.  109,  "  Habitrot."  Cy.  also  Henderson, 
p.  258.  The  little  old  man  may  be  explained  as  a  reminiscence  of  the 
clever  but  hostile  vanquished  race  who  afterwards  helped  to  mould  the 
fairy  superstition  (see  p.  22  supra),  women-  and  child-stealers.  The 
three  old  women  are  the  usual  "fairy  godmothers,"  fates,  three  in 
number,  who  appear  in  so  many  tales,  and  take  us  back  to  the  three 
De£e  Matres  of  earlier  Teutonic  and  Celtic  religion. 


THE  NAME  29 

Wind  and   Weather,  fell  and  broke  in  a   thousand 
pieces.^ 

Both  gfroups  of  stories  exemplify,  like  those  in 
which  the  wife  must  never  ask  her  mysterious 
husband's  name,'^  the  world-wide  belief  that  one's 
name  is  part  of  one's  personality,  or  indeed  the  soul 
or  breath  itself  (as  is  proved  by  the  similarity  between 
the  words  for  name  and  soul  in  many  languages),^  and 
that  it  is  highly  dangerous  for  any  other  person  to 
know  it.  If  he  does,  you  will  be  completely  in  his 
power,  on  the  well-known  principle  of  sympathetic 
magic,  that  whatever  you  do  to  the  part  is  done  to  the 
whole.  Hence,  savage  peoples  in  all  parts  of  the 
globe  show  the  utmost  reluctance  or  terror  at  reveal- 
ing their  names.  These  are  usually  kept  secret,  and  a 
nickname  or  pseudo-name  is  taken  and  commonly 
used.  Red  Indians,  Ainos,  Eskimo,  Mongols,  Dyaks, 
Australians,  are  all  in  the  same  tale,  and  would 
heartily  agree  with  Shakespeare,  though  in  a  deeper 
sense,  that  *'he  that  filches  from  me  my  good  name 
robs  me  of  that  which  not  enriches  him  and  makes 
me  poor  indeed."  Survivals  of  such  customs  among 
civilised  peoples,  attenuated  though  they  may  be, 
prove  that  our  barbaric  and  savage  ancestors  were 
equally  superstitious  regarding  their  names.  In  the 
same  way  the  dead  must  never  be  named,  lest  the 
naming  should  bring  them  back  to  work  harm.  And 
transferred  to  a  higher  sphere,  we  have  the  religious 
conception,  emphasised  in  Egyptian,  Babylonian, 
and  Hindu  rituals,  that  to  know  and  use  the  names 
of  the^gods  is  to  force  them  to  do  the  worshipper's 
bidding.  Transferring  this  to  our  stories,  we  see  the 
application  at  once.  The  voluntary  servant,  who  had 
hoped  to  get  his  employer  into  his  power,  found  the 
tables  turned  on  him  when  the  latter  discovered  his 

1  Amason,  i.   49.     Cf.  also  Hofberg,  p.  12  ;   Thorpe,  N.M.y   iii. 
38  ;  Keightley,  p.  116.  ^  See  p.  328. 

3  Cf.  Rhys,  Nineteenth  Century^  1891,  p.  566. 


^0  /  SOME  FOLK-TALE  INCIDENTS 

secret  name.  Now  he  was  helpless  and  in  the  power 
of  the  employer ;  hence  his  anger,  his  flight,  or  his 
death. 

(3)  Among  the  more  mysterious  and  magical 
practices  of  folk-tales,  that  of  causing  a  magic  sleep 
may  be  noted.  In  some  cases,  like  an  episode  in  the 
Finnish  Kalevala,  we  are  not  told  how  this  is  done. 
Turo,  son  of  Yumala,  went  to  the  devils  country  to 
recover  the  sun  and  moon,  which  had  been  stolen. 
There  he  saw  three  girls  engaged  in  polishing  them, 
and  having  sent  a  magic  sleep  on  them,  he  fled  with 
his  spoils.  So  in  a  Tuscan  tale  two  witches  cast  a 
youth  into  a  deep  sleep,  and  then  suck  his  blood  to 
make  themselves  invisible.^  In  others  the  sleep  is 
brought  on  by  a  magic  formula  or  charm.  This 
occurs  in  several  Cinderella  stories.  The  neglected 
heroine  of  a  Gaelic  version  is  fed  by  a  sheep  (her 
mother) ;  her  stepsister  is  sent  to  spy  upon  her ;  the 
sheep  sends  her  to  sleep  by  saying — 

"  Shut  one  eye,  shut  two  eyes, 
Shut  your  eyes  in  deep  sleep." 

On  the  third  occasion  the  sheep  forgets  to  say 
''two  eyes,"  and  one  eye  remains  open  to  spy  what 
takes  place,  with  the  result  that  the  sheep  is  put  to 
death  by  the  stepmother.^  Other  variants,  Scandi- 
navian, Russian,  German,  introduce  a  three-eyed 
stepsister,  who  spies  with  her  third  eye  when  the  other 
two  sleep. ^  This  formula  occurs  also  in  Russian  Jack 
and  the  Beanstalk  stories,  where  the  hero,  who  has 
climbed  to  the  sky,  omits  to  charm  one  of  the  eyes  of 
the  sentinel  goats,   and  his  doings  are  discovered. 


1  Folk-Lore^  1895,  P-  343-     Leland,  E.R.R.,  p.  218.     Cf.  Curtin,  p. 
185,  story  of  a  vampire. 

'^  Cox,  Cinderella,  p.  534. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  19.     Afanasief,  pt.  vi.,  p.  270.     Grimm,  No.  130. 


THE  MAGIC  SLEEP  31 

The  same  method  of  lullingf  to  sleep  by  means  of  a 
charm  Is  known  among-  the  Maoris.  Tinlrau  and  his 
friends  go  to  the  house  of  a  priest  against  whom  he  has 
a  grudge,  and  send  all  those  in  the  house  to  sleep  by 
repeating  the  charm,  when  it  becomes  an  easy  matter 
to  carry  off  the  priest.  So,  to  cite  the  Kalevala  again, 
Vainamoinen  put  all  the  people  of  Pohjola  to  sleep  by 
singing  a  magic  song  when  he  wished  to  take  the 
sampo.^ 

Other  stories  refer  the  sleep  to  mechanical  means. 
Some  variants  of  the  Cinderella  group  make  the 
heroine  induce  the  magic  slumber  by  inviting  the 
stepsister  to  lay  her  head  on  her  lap,  in  order  that  she 
may  comb  out  her  tresses.  This  occurs  in  Gaelic, 
Norse,  Russian,  and  Lettish  versions,  and  in  all  the 
girl  has  a  third  eye  (in  the  back  of  her  head),  which 
continues  awake  ;  there  are  also  Italian  and  Lorraine 
versions  without  the  third  eye  formula,  the  girl  only 
pretending  sleep  on  the  second  occasion.^  A  ring- 
placed  on  the  finger  causes  slumber  in  the  Albanian 
story  of  **  The  World's  Beauty."  When  the  hero  who 
has  been  sent  to  discover  her  pulls  it  off,  she  awakens. 
In  many  Eastern  tales  death  (or  sleep)  is  caused  by 
laying  a  magic  rod  near  the  girl's  head  ;  she  Is  restored 
or  awakened  by  placing  another  at  her  feet.  Grimm's 
story  of ''The  Briar  Rose,"  with  its  variants,  makes 
the  heroine  and  all  about  her  go  to  sleep  when  she 
pricks  herself  with  her  spindle ;  a  sleep-thorn  Is  a 
favourite  instrument  In  Scandinavian  tales  ;  e.g;.,  in  the 
Edda,  Velin  fixes  a  thorn  in  the  Valkyrie  Brunhild  to 
make  her  sleep  profoundly.  A  pin  is  used  for  the 
same  purpose  in  an  Irish  story.^ 

Lastly,  there  Is  the  sleep  induced  by  the  *'  Hand  of 

^  Ralston,  p.  294 ;  cf.  p.  435  infra.  Shortland,  p.  71.  Kalevala^ 
Rune  42. 

2  Campbell,  ii.  300.  Asbjoernson,  p.  416.  Afanasief,  p.  273. 
Leskien,  p.  447.     Gubernatis,  Novelline^  p.  16.     Cosquin,  i.  248. 

3  Dozon,  p.  7.    Amason,  pp.  41 1,  441.  Hyde,  Beside  the  Fire^  p.  39. 


32  SOME  FOLK-TALE  INCIDENTS 

Glory."  An  Eng-lish  story  tells  how  a  beggar  was 
allowed  to  spend  the  night  at  an  inn.  When  all  had 
gone  to  bed,  the  cook  saw  him  produce  a  human  hand, 
and,  anointing  the  fingers,  apply  a  match  to  them, 
with  the  result  that  all  the  inmates  of  the  house  slept 
a  charmed  sleep.  While  the  thief  was  engaged  in 
collecting  the  valuables,  she  threw  milk  over  the  flam- 
ing fingers,  extinguishing  the  flame,  when  everyone 
awoke,  and  captured  him  red-handed.  This  story, 
which  has  many  variants,  Portuguese,  Lorraine,  etc., 
and  corresponds  to  the  popular  belief  in  this  effect  of 
the  Hand  of  Glory,  presents  some  analogies  to  the 
Robber  Bridegroom  group,  of  which  I  cite  a  Greek 
version.  A  girl  having  married  a  merchant,  saw  him 
secretly  devouring  a  corpse.  She  fled,  and  later 
married  a  prince.  Her  first  husband  sought  her, 
entered  the  palace,  and  sprinkled  the  prince  with  the 
dust  of  a  corpse,  casting  him  into  a  dead  sleep.  Then 
he  carried  off  his  wife,  who,  however,  by  a  stratagem 
caused  his  death.  ^ 

Such  incidents  as  these,  whatever  means  may  be 
used  for  causing  the  sleep,  are  based  on  the  belief  in 
the  possibility  of  such  a  process,  and  one  and  all 
suggest  the  hypnotic  slumber.  Is  it  possible  that  the 
use  of  hypnotism  was  known  among  the  people  with 
whom  such  stories  originated,  and  at  such  an  early 
time  ?  An  examination  of  the  methods  of  the  savage 
medicine-man,  shaman,  or  sorcerer,  supplies  evidence 
in  favour  of  this  view.  Hypnotic  processes  were 
freely  used  in  the  strange  "ghost-dance"  of  the  Sioux 
and  other  Red  Men.  Zulu  sorcerers  can  influence 
others  a  distance,  making  them  come  when  called ; 
this  is  a  frequent  incident  in  Icelandic  tales — people 
go  in  spite  of  themselves  when  magically  called  by 
enemies.     The  same  practice  is  known  to  the  Negro 

^  Hartland,  English  Folk-Tales,  p.  198.  Henderson,  p.  239. 
Cosquin,  i.  178.     Legrand,  p.   115. 


SAVAGE  HYPNOTIC  METHODS  33 

medicine-man.  A  fetich  doctor  made  an  idol,  griving- 
it  spirit  power  by  placing-  ''medicine"  inside  it.  Then 
he  fashioned  a  duplicate,  in  which  he  placed  only 
powdered  charcoal.  To  all  appearance  they  were 
exactly  alike.  He  hid  them  in  the  depths  of  the 
forest,  and,  having-  returned  to  the  village,  put  a 
woman  under  the  power  of  otaga  (a  certain  kind  of 
spirit),  so  that  she  should  go  to  the  hiding-place  and 
bring  him  the  real  idol.  In  other  words,  he  hypnotised 
her.  At  first  she  went  at  random,  then  with  a  loud 
yell  she  rushed  off  to  the  forest,  found  the  spot,  and 
took  up  the  g-enuine  idol,  returning  with  it  to  the 
village,  where  she  laid  it  at  the  feet  of  the  wizard. 
Modern  experiments  made  by  Parisian  scientists  with 
hypnotic  patients  bear  a  strong-  likeness  to  this  Negro 
case— the  patient  going-  through  several  streets  to  a 
certain  house,  and  returning-  with  some  object  found 
there,  all  at  the  suggestion  of  the  hypnotist.  An- 
namese  medicine-men  hypnotise  those  who  come  to 
consult  them,  by  bidding-  them  gaze  steadily  at  two 
burning  rings  of  wood,  while  they  talk  to  the  "sub- 
jects," and  make  weird  gestures  with  head  and  hands. 
These  methods  resemble  those  still  used  by  many 
hypnotists — gazing  at  a  bright  object,  passes  with  the 
hands,  and  verbal  suggestion.  Dr  Otto  Stoll's  great 
work  on  Sug'g'estion  und  Hypnotismus  in  der  V'dlker- 
psycholozie  is  full  of  similar  cases  ;  the  most  elaborate 
study  is  found  in  the  Smithsonian  Institute's  Report 
of  Siouan  hypnotic  methods ;  while  mediaeval  and 
later  witchcraft  literature  teems  with  incidents  of 
inhibition,  of  the  victim's  rapport  with  the  witch,  of 
the  witch's  insensibility  to  torture  (probably  by  self- 
induced  trance),  and  of  illusions  on  the  part  of  the 
subjects — all  of  which  may  be  classed  as  hypnotic.^ 

^  Bureau  of  Ethnology^  i^tk  Annual  Report,  part  ii.  Callaway,  p. 
431.  Powell  and  Magnusson,  ii.  103,  123.  Nassau,  p.  309.  Revue 
de  V Hypnotisme,  October  1893.  Dr  Bastian's  Ueber  psychi^che 
Beobachtungen  bet  Naturvolkern  gives  other  savage  instances. 

C 


34  SOME  FOLK-TALE  INCIDENTS 

If,  then,  savagfe  medicine-man  and  European  witch 
made  use  of  what  were  then  deemed  magfical  methods 
to  induce  sleep,  but  are  now  obtaining-  a  tardy  recogr- 
nition  from  science  (more  abusive  of  the  early- 
mesmerists  than  ever  were  theologfians  of  the  Dar- 
winian theory),  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  the 
magic  sleep  of  our  tales  is  simply  an  exaggerated 
reflection  of  those  very  methods  themselves. 

Another  branch  of  primitive  magic  belonging  to 
the  X  region  is  suggested  by  some  folk-tale  incidents, 
which  may  be  illustrated  first  by  a  story  found  in 
West  Africa.  A  woman  called  Maria  had  a  magic 
mirror  which  possessed  the  power  of  speech,  and 
which  she  daily  asked,  "  My  mirror,  is  there  any 
other  beautiful  woman  like  myself?  "  And  the  mirror 
would  reply,  ''  Mistress,  there  is  none."  But  at  last 
the  mirror,  which  was  kept  in  a  forbidden  room,  was 
seen  by  Maria's  daughter,  who  disobeyed  her  mother's 
injunction,  and  it  told  her  that  there  was  none  so 
beautiful  as  she.  The  mirror  told  the  same  to  Maria 
herself,  who,  in  a  fit  of  jealousy,  sent  the  girl  off  with 
two  soldiers,  who  were  to  put  her  to  death.  They 
spared  her,  smearing  their  swords  with  the  blood  of 
two  dogs,  and  showed  them  to  Maria.  Meanwhile  the 
girl  came  to  a  house,  in  which  she  hid,  tidying  it  up 
day  by  day.  The  house  belonged  to  some  robbers, 
who  bade  one  of  their  number  watch  for  the  unknown 
servant.  He  discovered  her,  and  the  robbers  made 
her  their  sister.  Meanwhile  the  mother  had  her 
suspicions  of  the  soldiers,  and  sent  an  old  woman  to 
look  for  the  girl.  The  witch  discovered  her,  and 
under  pretence  of  braiding  her  hair,  stuck  a  nail  into 
her  head,  which  caused  her  to  fall  apparently  dead. 
On  their  return  the  robbers  placed  the  girl  in  a  golden 
casket,  which  they  suspended  to  a  flagstaff  There  it 
was  found  by  two  men,  one  of  whom,  called  Ogula, 
took  it  to  his  house,  where  he  discovered  its  contents. 


"SNEEWITCHEN"  36 

He  hid  it  in  a  room,  which  he  visited  every  day  to 
admire  the  sleeping-  beauty,  forbidding-  his  own 
daughter  ever  to  cross  the  threshold.  She,  too, 
disobeyed  him,  and  in  the  sequel,  as  she  played  with 
the  girl's  hair,  found  the  nail  and  pulled  it  out,  causing 
life  to  be  restored  instantly.^ 

This  story  has  several  European  versions,  and  Dr 
Nassau,  who  cites  it,  is  of  opinion  that  it  has  been 
derived  by  the  natives  from  the  Portuguese  occupants 
three  hundred  years  ago.  It  is  Grimm's  story  of 
Sneewitchen,  in  which  the  queen  has  a  magic  mirror 
which  speaks,  and  which,  after  she  thinks  the  heroine 
has  been  disposed  of,  tells  her  that  Snow  White  is 
still  alive. 

"  Amid  the  forest,  darkly  green, 
She  lives  with  dwarfs — the  hills  between." 

The  Speaking  mirror  is  found  in  most  of  the  many 
versions  of  this  tale.^  In  other  stories  the  mirror 
does  not  speak,  but  reveals  distant  scenes  and  hidden 
events.  Thus  in  a  Russian  story  a  little  girl  is 
murdered  by  her  sisters  for  the  sake  of  her  little  silver 
plate,  which  shows  her  beautiful  far-off  things — "towns 
and  rivers,  and  forests  and  seas,  lofty  mountains  and 
beautiful  skies."  Another  incident  is  that  of  the 
story  group  in  which  three  brothers  are  suitors  for 
the  same  girl,  and  it  is  arranged  that  she  will  marry 
the  one  who  brings  home  the  most  wonderful  thing*. 

'  Nassau,  p.  337. 

2  Grimm  cites  several  variants.  There  is  a  Hungarian  version  in 
Jones,  p.  166,  and  a  Wallachian  in  Schott,  No.  5.  Mr  Nutt  cites  an 
early  Gaelic  variant,  in  which  a  trout  in  a  well  (the  Celtic  "  Salmon  of 
Knowledge")  takes  the  place  of  the  mirror.  He  thinks  the  clear 
surface  of  the  well  may  have  suggested  the  mirror  of  other  versions  ; 
while  again  the  introduction  of  the  mirror  may  have  arisen  from  a 
misunderstanding  of  the  name  of  the  divining  animal ;  in  a  German 
variant  it  is  a  dog  called  Spiegel  {Folk-LorCy  iii.  41).  In  any 
case,  mirror-divination  must  have  been  known  before  the  mistake 
arose. 


36  SOME  FOLK-TALE  INCIDENTS 

One  gfets  a  magic  carriage;  another,  apples  which 
heal ;  a  third,  a  mirror  which  reveals  what  is  going  on 
wherever  the  seeker  thinks  of.  A  Mingrelian  story  is 
curious.  Three  sons  set  out  to  find  a  fish  which 
would  cure  their  father.  The  youngest  was  success- 
ful, but  spared  the  fish's  life  on  its  earnest  entreaty. 
Later,  this  was  discovered,  and  he  was  ordered  to  be 
killed.  He  escaped,  and  spared  the  lives  of  a  deer, 
an  eagle,  and  a  jackal,  who,  like  the  fish,  promised  to 
help  him.  Next  he  sought  to  marry  a  maiden  who 
would  only  give  herself  to  the  suitor  who  should 
successfully  conceal  himself  from  her.  Many  had 
tried  and  failed,  and  had  been  put  to  death  in  con- 
sequence. Our  hero  tried,  and  got  the  fish  to  swallow 
him.  Now  the  girl  had  a  mirror  which  always  showed 
her  where  her  suitors  were  hid.  She  looked  into  it ; 
he  was  not  in  the  sky,  or  on  the  land,  but  she  saw 
him  in  the  sea.  His  cleverness  merited  her  pardon.; 
she  gave  him  another  chance.  Again  the  mirror 
revealed  his  hiding-place  with  the  eagle,  and  a  third 
time  with  the  deer  in  his  lair.  But  the  fourth  time 
the  jackal  buried  him  under  the  maiden's  bower ;  she 
looked  at  the  vision  of  the  sea,  the  sky,  the  hills ;  he 
Was  not  there.  Then  she  dashed  the  mirror  to  the 
floor,  whereupon  the  hero  emerged  from  his  hiding- 
place  and  married  her.  A  Dyak  story  may  be 
compared  with  these.  Si  Jura,  having  reached  the 
sky,  like  Jack  after  climbing  his  beanstalk,  looked 
into  a  large  jar  and  saw  his  relatives  at  home,  and 
the  sight  at  once  made  him  long  to  return.  In  a 
Fjort  tale,  cited  later,  the  hero,  after  his  marriage, 
discovered  several  mirrors,  in  each  of  which  he  saw  a 
village  that  he  knew;  but  in  one  was  reflected  the 
image  of  a  town  unknown  to  him,  and  he  would  not 
rest  till  he  had  discovered  it.^ 

1  Naake,  pp.  170,  194.  Wardrop,  p.  124.  Ling  Roth,  i.  307  ;  see 
p.  436  ////ra.  Dennett,  p.  60  ;  see  pp.  383-4  infra.  Miss  Cox,  p.  483, 
gives  other  references. 


CRYSTAL-GAZING  37 

•These  incidents  are  obviously  based  on  the 
phenomena  of  crystal-gazing",  which  is  both  ancient 
and  widespread.  By  looking-  into  a  dish  of  water,  a 
metal  mirror,  a  gem,  water  held  in  the  palm  of  the 
hand,  etc.,  visions  are  seen  by  those  who  have  the 
power  of  *' scrying,"  as  it  is  called.  These  visions 
may  be  the  suggestions  of  what  is  latent  in  the  sub- 
conscious self,  or  fashioned,  like  dreams,  out  of  the 
elements  of  past  impressions ;  but  sometimes,  like 
clairvoyance,  they  show  forth  future  events.  What- 
ever be  its  cause,  it  has  been  known  and  used  from  a 
remote  antiquity,  and  by  savage  and  civilised  races. 
The  negro  fetich-priest  uses  a  mirror  for  discovering 
distant  or  future  events ;  sorcerers  in  Yucatan  and 
Dyak  manangs  have  a  quartz  crystal  for  the  same 
purpose — this  suggests  that  the  quartz  stones  found 
in  prehistoric  graves  may  have  been  used  in 
this  way;  '*  cup-divination "  is  used  in  Polynesia; 
American  Indians  use  both  crystals  and  water; 
Malagasy  natives,  crystals.  The  art  was  also  known 
to  Assyrians,  Persians,  Egyptians,  Greeks,  and 
Romans.^  It  was  inevitable  that  such  a  universal 
practice  would  find  some  place  in  folk-tale,  and  we  are 
only  surprised  that  it  does  not  occur  oftener.  The 
mirror  which  speaks  is,  of  course,  nothing  but  the 
story-teller's  conception  of  the  hallucinatory  crystal  or 
mirror. 


1  Reade,  p.  542.  Cf.  p.  123  infra.  F.L.J.,  \.  245.  Ling  Roth, 
i.  273.  Ellis,  ii.  240.  Lang,  Making  of  Religion^  pp.  90-92. 
Parish,  Hallucinations  and  Illusions.  Proc.  Soc.  Psych.  Research^  v. 
486  seq.  Other  negro  instances  are  given  by  Dr  Nassau,  p.  134. 
A  magician  divined  from  his  mirror  that  a  woman  who  consulted 
him  would  marry  a  white  man  and  have  two  children.  Like  Sarah, 
she  scoffed,  as  she  believed  herself  past  child-bearing,  but  five  years 
later  the  divination  proved  correct.  Another  magician  saw  a  woman's 
brother  lying  dead  300  miles  off,  describing  his  wounds,  and  the 
details  of  the  place  where  he  had  never  himself  been.  The  informa- 
tion proved  correct.  Dr  Nassau  knows  of  telepathic  cases  among 
the  negroes  ;  see  p.  208  infra. 


38  SOME  FOLK-TALE  INCIDENTS 

In  the  folk- tale  world  animals  talk  and  act  precisely 
as  men  do,  as  is  evidenced  best  of  all  by  the  Puss-in- 
Boots  cycle.  This  is  no  mere  fagon  de  parler :  it  is 
accepted  as  quite  natural  by  children  ;  the  peasantry 
think  it  may  once  have  happened ;  savagres  believe 
thoroughly  in  it ;  and  we  are,  therefore,  once  more 
driven  to  the  conclusion  that  the  talking-  animals  of 
all  folk-tales  descend  from  an  age  when  it  was  one  of 
the  commonplaces  of  thought  and  belief  that  animals 
did  and  could  talk,  and  were,  in  effect,  nothing  but 
men  and  women  in  animal  shape.  Modern  savages 
still  believe  this  ;  to  multiply  proofs  is  here  unnecessary; 
let  it  suffice  to  quote  Jthe  words  of  Mr  Im  Thurn, 
than  whom  no  one  has  a  better  right  to  speak  on  the 
workings  of  the  savage  mind.  *'To  the  ear  of  the 
savage,"  he  says,  "animals  certainly  seem  to  talk. 
This  fact  is  universally  evident,  and  ought  to  be  fully 
recognised."^  It  is  not  surprising  that  savages  should 
think  thus,  when  we  learn  that  Basque  peasants  often 
preface  their  stories  with  the  words,  "  This  happened, 
sir,  in  the  time  when  all  animals  and  all  things  could 
speak,"  while  no  one  doubts  the  literal  truth  of  this 
statement.^  In  many  parts  of  Europe — Germany, 
Roumania,  France,  Switzerland,  England — it  is  firmly 
believed  by  the  peasants  that  animals  have  the  gift  of 
speech  on  Christmas  Eve  or  on  New  Year's  Day: 
but  men  must  not  hear  them  talk,  else  they  will  die.y 
Greeks  and  Romans  also  believed  In  this  occasional 
gift  of  tongues,  as  the  Incidents  reported  by  Livy 
will  show.  In  mediaeval  times  Beast  Fables  were 
largely  made  use  of  by  preachers  ;  beasts  symbolised 
men,  and  their  words  and  actions  were  intended  to 
teach  a  lesson.  These  were  largely  drawn  from 
Eastern  sources  ;  Buddhist  literature  abounds  in  them. 

^  Indians  of  Guiana^  p.  351. 
2  Webster,  Basque  Legends^  xi. 

^  Thorpe,    N.M.^   iii.   7.     E.    Gerard,   i.   337.     Berenger-Feraud, 
ii.  461.     Jones,  p.  421. 


ANIMAL  FOLK-LORE  39 

Most  folk-tale  collections  contain  specimens  of  them, 
which  are  yet  told  among  the  peasantry.  But  they 
were  not  invented  to  point  a  moral ;  they  already 
existed  as  primitive  folk-tales,  and  all  savage  collections 
are  full  of  stories  of  animals  which  it  would  take  little 
alteration  or  dressing-  to  turn  into  genuine /ad/iaux. 
Such  savage  stories  are  of  the  Brer  Rabbit  class,  and 
tell  how  this  or  the  other  animal  successfully  tricked  the 
others.  As  a  rule,  each  people  has  its  favourite  rogue 
animal — Hottentots,  Bushmen,  and  Berbers,  the 
jackal ;  Bantus,  Negroes,  Mongols,  and  Coreans,  the 
rabbit  or  hare ;  Malays  and  Dyaks,  the  moose-deer 
and  tortoise;  Red  Indians,  the  turtle,  or  coyote,  or 
raven. ^  The  humour  of  these  stories  is  exquisite, 
while  the  astuteness  and  cunning  of  the  animals,  the 
vengeance  which  usually  follows  on  their  actions,  are 
a  curious  revelation  of  savage  ethics. 

Another  idea  which  is  also  derived  from  early 
belief  about  animals,  is  that  each  class  of  animals  or, 
sometimes,  all  animals  in  general,  have  a  chief  or 
king,  villages  of  their  own,  and  a  social  organisation 
which  is  simply  a  reflection  of  that  found  among  the 
people  themselves.  Among  the  Polynesians,  the 
people  of  Yucatan,  Hindus,  Tibetans,  and  Kashmiri, 
Africans,  and  natives  of  Guiana,  to  mention  only  a 
few,  we  find  a  chief  or  king  of  each  species.  This 
also  occurs  in  European  folk-lore,  as  in  Celtic  tales* 
where  the  creatures  have  each  a  head-chief  or  leader. ^^ 
But  Kafirs,  Mongols,  and  Pawnees  all  believe  that 
animals  of  sorts  group  themselves  under  one  leader, 
and  have  regular  laws,  distribution  of  labour,  watch- 

1  Theal,  pp.  175,  213  ;  Basset,  xi.  Steere,  J.A.I.^  1872,  cli.  ; 
Allen,  p.  34.  Skeat,  xii. ;  Ling  Roth,  i.  311.  Gushing,  passim. 
In  Bushman  beast  stories  each  animal  speaks  a  language  peculiar  to 
itself,  a  modification  of  the  Bushman  dialect. 

2  Gill,  p.  100.  Brinton,  F.L.J. ^  i.  256.  Miss  Stokes,  pp.  67,  291. 
Knowles,  p.  205.  Theal,  p.  107.  Brett,  p.  167.  Garmichael,  Cartnina 
Gadelica^  ii.  332. 


40  SOME  FOLK-TALE  INCIDENTS 

men,  etc.  ^  All  readers  of  folk- tales  are  familiar 
with  references  to  the  kings  of  birds,  of  fishes,  of 
serpents,  who  summon  their  followers  to  help  some 
hero  whom  they  have  befriended,  so  that  it  is  unneces- 
sary to  labour  this  argument  further.  It  explains 
its^f  by  actual  belief  dating  from  primitive  ages. 

But  in  most  tales  we  find  that  animals  have  a 
language  of  their  own,  which  may  be  learned  by  men?) 
When  it  is  known,  all  that  animals  say  is  revealed^ 
and  often  important  secrets  and  recondite  wisdom  are 
discovered.  In  a  whole  cycle  of  stories,  with  Basque, 
Portuguese,  French,  Russian,  English,  and  other 
variants,  we  are  told  how  a  father  ejects  or  murders 
his  son  because  he  has  learned  nothing  but  the 
language  of  birds,  and  on  interpreting  what  a  certain 
bird  sings,  seems  to  be  disrespectful  to  his  father.^ 
Sometimes  animals  reveal  their  languages  out  of 
gratitude  to  some  one  who  has  befriended  them,  as  In 
the  Pawnee  tales  referred  to,  and  in  Hungarian, 
Finnish,  Servian,  Norse,  German,  Celtic,  and  Arab 
versions  of  a  well-known  cycle,  in  which  the  king  of  the 
snakes'  daughter  reveals  it,  and  the  hero  subsequently 
is  tormented  by  his  wife  to  know  why  he  is  laughing, 
viz.,  at  what  the  animals  are  saying.^  This  unknown 
tongue  is  also  referred  to  in  many  Eastern  tales, 
Hindu,  Kashmir,  Mongol,  etc.,  and  Is  usually  learned 
by  some  one  who  subsequently  benefits  by  the  acquired 
knowledge.*  Granted  the  belief  that  animals  have 
such  a  language,  the  corollary  is  inevitable  that  some 
one  has  picked  It  up  in  various  ways.     Hence,  stories 

1  Theal,  p.  165.     Busk,  Sagas^  p.  165.     Grinnell, /<2jj/m. 

2  Webster,  p.  136.  Coelho,  p.  133.  Luzel,  Leg.  Chrei.^  \.  ^07. 
Leger,  Conf.  Pop.  Slaves^  p.  235.  Wright's  edition  of  Seven 
Sages,  p.  106.     Cf.  Hartland,  "The  Outcast  Child,"   in  F.L.J.,   iv. 

334. 

^  Grinnell,  op.  cit.  Jones,  p.  301.  Mijatovich,  p.  36.  Dasent, 
p.  4.     Grimm,   ii.   541.     Campbell,   iii.    353.     Payne,  Arab.  Nights, 

i.  14. 

*  Day,  p.  150.     Knowles,  p.  432.     F.L.J.,  iii.  323. 


"THE  SALMON  OF  KNOWLEDGE ^^  41 

about  it  would  arise.  But  a  further  development  of 
the  acquirement,  not  only  of  animal  langiiagfe,  but  of 
animal  wisdom,  suggests  another  cause,  viz.,  that 
firm  belief  found  among  all  savages  that  by  eating- 
part  of  another  person  or  part  of  an  animal,  you 
acquire  his  qualities — wisdom,  bravery,  strength,  or 
what  not.  This  common  practice,  based  upon  the 
evident  strength  which  comes  from  eating,  naturally 
suggested  that  if  animals,  or  certain  of  them,  had 
superior  and  recondite  wisdom,  it  would  become  the 
property  of  any  person  who  should  eat  the  animal  in 
question.  This  is  best  illustrated  by  the  cycle  of 
tales  in  which  different  parts  of  a  bird  are  eaten  by 
two  brothers,  as  a  result  of  which  one  of  them 
becomes  a  king,  and  the  other  finds  gold  and  jewels 
under  his  pillow  every  morning.^  But  in  many  lands 
it  is  by  eating  a  snake  that  wisdom  or  the  language 
of  animals  is  acquired,  and,  as  a  rule,  it  is  some 
particular  snake.  Thus  with  Arabs  and  Swahilis  it  is 
the  king  of  the  snakes ;  among  Swedish,  Danish, 
German,  Celtic,  Breton,  and  Slavonic  tales  it  is  a 
white  snake,  or  sometimes  a  fabulous  snake  with  a 
crown  on  its  head,  resembling  the  jewelled  headed 
serpent  of  Eastern  lore.  So  in  the  Volsunga  Saga, 
Sigurd  acquired  the  language  of  animals  by  eating 
the  flesh  of  the  dragon  Fafnir.  In  Celtic  belief  the 
salmon  was  credited  with  extraordinary  wisdom,  or  at 
least  those  salmon  which  ate  the  nuts  that  fell  from 
the  mystic  hazels  round  Connlas  well.  If  anyone 
caught  and  ate  such  a  fish,  there  was  no  end  to  his 
wisdom.^ 

^  These  are — Breton  (Sebillot,  p.  97) ;  Russian  (Ralston,  No.  53) ; 
German,  (Grimm,  p.  193) ;  Greek  (Hahn,  i.  227) ;  Egyptian  (Spitta 
Bey,  No.  9) ;  Berber  (Bassett,  p.  75) ;  Tibetan  {Tib.  Tales,  p.  129) ; 
Kashmir  (Knowles,  p.  169)  ;'  Indian  (Steele  and  Temple,  pp.  139, 
326) ;  and  other  versions.     Cf.  p.  462,  for  a  Red  Indian  variant. 

2  Steere,  p.  333.  Thorpe,  N.M.,  i.  97  ;  ii.  98,  217.  Campbell, 
ii.  361  ;  iii.  331.  Guest,  Mabinogion,  p.  471.  Sebillot,  ii.  224. 
Wratislaw,    p.    25.      O'Curry,    Manners    of    Anct.    Irish,    ii.     143. 


42  SOME  FOLK-TALE  INCIDENTS 

These  folk-tale  beliefs  originated  In  the  manner  I 
have  suggested,  aided,  perhaps,  by  the  Idea  that  by 
eating  a  totem-animal  on  certain  solemn  occasions 
one  acquires  all  its  nature  and  attributes.  A  further 
example  occurs  In  Aino  belief  By  eating  the  heart 
of  the  water-ousel  they  think  they  will  be  able  to  stand 
fatigue,  wax  eloquent,  and  obtain  riches,  because  the 
water-ousel  is  wise  and  eloquent.  It  Is  a  simple 
transfer  of  qualities  by  eating.^ 

Several  stories  contain  the  touching  incident  of  the 
mother  who  returns  from  the  grave,  or  from  fairyland, 
or  who  comes  in  her  transformed  shape  after  being 
bewitched  by  the  false  wife,  to  suckle  her  child.  It  is 
the  Incident  expressed  with  such  extraordinary  direct- 
ness and  a  pathos  which  is  almost  brutal,  in  the 
Yorkshire  ballad  quoted  by  Emily  Bronte^ — 

"  'Twas  late  at  night,  and  the  bairns  grat. 
The  mother  among  the  mools  heard  that." 

This  ballad  version  is  the  simplest  form  of  the 
story  of  which  I  shall  first  cite  a  Russian  variant.  A 
peasant's  wife  died  at  childbirth.  It  was  observed 
that  the  child  cried  all  day,  but  was  silent  at  night. 
The  nurse  watched,  and  at  midnight  heard  the  door 
open  and  saw  some  one  go  towards  the  cradle,  when 
the  child  lay  still  as  if  it  were  being  nursed.  Next 
night  the  father  himself  watched  with  a  hidden  light, 
suddenly  uncovering  it  when  the  visitor  came  in. 
She  proved  to  be  his  dead  wife,  who  bent  over  the 
cradle  and  suckled  the  child.  After  a  time  she  went 
away  silently  as  she  ha4  come,   but  the  child  was 

Classical  students  will  recall  the  story  of  Melampus,  who,  having 
saved  two  serpents,  was  taught  the  language  of  animals  by  their 
licking  his  ear. 

1  Cf.  the  stories  where,  by  eating  a  fish,  a  woman  bears  one  or  more 
sons.     See  p.  381  infra. 


FOLK-TALE  GHOSTS  43 

found  to  be  dead.^  There  are  some  Irish  stories 
resembling-  this  Russian  tale.  In  one  a  woman  had 
gone  to  America,  leaving  her  boy  with  her  brother, 
who  ill-treated  him.  She  died,  and  at  the  moment  of 
her  death  appeared  to  a  woman  in  Ireland,  telling  her 
about  the  boy,  and  afterwards  went  to  the  boy  himself 
and  comforted  him  as  only  a  mother  could.  Soon 
after  a  letter  arrived,  announcing  her  death.  Another 
Irish  story  describes  how  a  mother's  ghost  "walked  " 
until  her  children  were  removed  from  the  workhouse 
by  her  lazy  husband,  a  black  swelling  appearing  on 
the  percipient's  wrist  where  the  ghost  had  touched  it, 
as  a  proof  of  her  reality.^  Reference  may  also  be 
made  here  to  a  Polynesian  tale,  cited  later,  in  which 
a  dead  woman  escapes  from  Hades  to  attend  to  her 
helpless  child  at  home.^ 

These  tales  have  some  connection  with  another 
group,  of  which  there  are  many  Gaelic  versions.  A 
woman  apparently  died  and  was  buried  ;  in  reality  she 
had  been  carried  off  by  the  fairies,  who  left  an  illusory 

^  For  a  further  discussion  of  this  cycle,  see  chap,  vi.,  pp.  150-53. 
Ralston,  p.  19. 

2  Curtin,  p.  144.  Yeats,  Celtic  Twilight^  p.  37.  The  first  of  these 
Irish  stories  is  an  excellent  folk-tale  instance  of  a  phantasm  coincidental 
with  death.  Cf.  an  instance  on  p.  168,  of  a  death  communicated  by  a 
dream  to  two  people  at  the  same  moment.  When  such  phantasms 
are  so  abundant  in  actual  life,  as  we  see  from  the  Psychical  Research 
Society's  Proceedings^  Gurney's  Phantasms  of  the  Living^  and  Myers' 
Human  Personality^  it  is  not  surprising  that  they  occur  in  folk-tales, 
which  usually  are  a  faithful  reflection  of  life,  custom,  and  belief.  In 
another  Irish  tale  a  man  called  Connor  borrowed  threepence  from 
another  man  who  fell  ill.  One  day  Connor  saw  him  coming  along 
the  road,  and  was  pulling  the  money  from  his  pocket  to  return  it, 
when  the  man  disappeared.  He  then  met  two  other  men  who 
informed  him  that  the  man  had  just  died.  Curtin,  Tales  of  Irish 
Fairies.  Ghosts  in  folk-tales  are  less  common  than  might  have  been 
expected.  Even  in  Africa,  where  their  power  is  so  much  believed 
in,  there  are  few  folk-tales  referring  to  them.  Cf.  a  Basuto  story  in 
Jacottet,  p.  237,  where  a  ghost  makes  a  girl's  water-jug  stick  fast  to  the 
ground. 

3  See  p.  178. 


U  SOME  FOLK-TALE  INCIDENTS 

form  of  a  corpse  in  her  place,  in  accordance  with  the 
usual  fairy  practice  in  Celtic  (Irish  and  Highland) 
JDelief  in  such  cases  of  stealing-  away  a  human  being. 
(^Sometimes  the  woman  appears  to  her  husband  in 
sleep,  telling-  him  how  he  may  recover  her  ;  but  in  one 
tale  she  is  seen  at  nig-ht  singing  to  her  child^  Her 
husband  sprang  up  and  caught  her,  but  she  told  him 
he  must  go  to  the  fairy  hillock  and  remove  her  bodily 
from  it.  By  using  iron  and  a  black  cock,  both 
detested  by  fairies,  he  effected  an  entrance  to  fairy- 
land and  carried  the  woman  away.  Scott,  in  his 
Minstrelsy,  cites  a  similar  Lowland  story.  In  this 
tale  a  woman  had  been  carried  off  to  fairyland,  and  a 
disfigured  corpse  left  in  her  place.  The  husband  was 
about  to  marry  again,  but  the  first  wife  appeared  to 
him  several  times,  and  lat  last,  when  he  paid  no  atten- 
tion to  her,  upbraided  him,  and,  to  prove  that  she  was 
no  impostor,  proceeded  to  suckle  her  child.  The  man 
was  terrified,  and  went  to  his  minister,  who,  unlike  the 
Reverend  Mr  Kirk  of  Aberfoyle,  the  author  of  the 
Secret  Commonwealth  of  the  Elves,  had  no  faith  in 
fairies,  and  married  the  couple  at  once  to  prevent 
further  disturbance.  The  wife  never  appeared  again. 
But  had  the  husband  followed  her  advice,  viz.,  to  dig 
up  the  corpse,  to  seize  it  as  it  tried  to  flee  away, 
and  to  hold  it  in  spite  of  all  its  transformations,  he 
would  have  recovered  this  Eurydice  of  fairyland. 
There  is,  in  these  two  groups  of  stories,  as  well  as  in 
many  others  with  which  we  are  not  concerned  at 
present,  little  distinction  between  ghostland  and  fairy- 
land ;  the  same  laws  govern  both,  the  same  tabus : 
(^.^.,  not  to  eat  food  offered  by  ghost  or  fairy)  are 
effective  in  both,  and  from  both  the  dead  may  be 
recovered,  or  may  come  to  warn  and  advise  the  living,^ 

1  Campbell,  Superstitions,  pp.  83-88.  Scott,  Minstrelsy,  ii.  222. 
I  have  referred  on  p.  438  to  Descents  to  the  Underworld.  They 
occur  in  every  mythology,  savage  and  civilised,  and  are  the  expression 
of  man's  firm  belief  that  Death  may  be  vanquished  and  the  dead 


THE  MOTHER'S  RETURN  46 

In  the  third  group  of  stories  in  the  True  Bride 
cycle  (already  referred  to),  a  similar  incident  occur-s 
with  great  dramatic  force,  and  though  it  does  not 
concern  the  return  of  the  dead,  may  be  mentioned 
here.  The  wife,  transformed  by  witchcraft  into  an 
animal,  appears  by  night  in  the  house,  saying  that  she 
will  come  three  times  and  watch  her  child.  The 
husband  catches  her  on  the  third  visit,  when  a  whole 
series  of  transformations  follow,  as  in  the  Lowland 
fairy  story ;  he  still  holds  her  firmly  in  spite  of  all,  and 
at  last  her  true  form  is  restored  to  her.  There  are 
Russian,  Swedish,  and  Finnish  variants,  with  trans- 
formation to  a  goose,  duck,  and  reindeer  respectively. 
In  other  versions,  which  must  represent  the  more 
primitive  form  of  the  tale,  there  is  no  primary  trans- 
formation. Thus,  a  Polish  variant  makes  the  mother 
return  after  she  has  been  killed  by  the  witch  step- 
mother ;  then  follows  the  capture  and  the  series  of 
transformations.  All  these  are  omitted  in  a  Jaina 
version,  where  the  wife  (like  the  Albanian  heroine)  is 

restored.  Sometimes  the  descent  is  made  to  rescue  the  victim  of 
death,  sometimes  to  wrest  a  secret  from  the  rulers  or  people  of  the 
sad  kingdom.  Later,  these  myths  became  folk-tales,  and  the  gods 
of  the  underworld  were  changed  into  heroes,  like  Prince  Hatt  under 
the  Earth  in  the  Swedish  tale  (p.  326).  The  underworld  of  the  ghosts 
then  became  (i)  Fairyland,  with  the  result  that  in  some  fairy-tales 
there  is  little  difference  between  ghosts  and  fairies,  while  the  descent 
is  made  either  to  rescue  some  stolen  person  or  to  capture  some 
treasure  of  fairyland  {e.g.^  a  fairy  cup,  like  the  Luck  of  Edenhall)  ; 
(2)  a  Land  below  the  earth  ;  sometimes  its  lord  steals  women,  who  are 
rescued  by  the  hero  (p.  351),  or  demands  a  wife  from  some  mortal 
(as  in  some  tales  of  the  Bluebeard  cycle) ;  in  other  tales  it  is  a 
beautiful  land,  entrance  to  which  is  made  through  a  well  (see  p.  191). 
Mythology  had  also  spoken  of  a  land  below  the  sea,  with  its  divinities. 
This  became  in  folk-tale  the  land  of  the  Water-king,  Sea-troll,  or 
Sea-maiden,  inveigling  mortals  beneath  the  wave.  Cf.  the  tales  cited 
on  pp.  417-18,  420.  Descents  to  the  underworld  of  Christian  dogma 
were  common  in  early  and  mediaeval  Christian  literature.  These, 
while  suggested  by  the  doctrine  of  our  Lord's  Descent  into  Hell, 
borrowed  many  details  from  myth  and  folk-tale.  See  T.  Wright,  St 
Patricias  Purgatory  ;  Tylor,  P.C.,  ii.  54  seq. 


46  SOME  FOLK-TALE  INCIDENTS 

thrown  into  a  well.  A  serpent  takes  care  of  her  and 
allows  her  to  return  and  see  her  child,  but  always  to 
come  back  before  dawn — a  true  ghost  tabu.  The 
fourth  time,  her  husband  catches  and  detains  her ;  a 
dead  snake  drops  from  her  head,  and  she  knows  she 
has  killed  her  protector  by  overstaying-  her  time.^ 

The  same  incident  occurs  in  stories  in  which  the 
fairy  wife  leaves  her  husband  when  he  breaks  a  tabu. 
Melusina  left  Count  Raymond  when  he  discovered  her 
serpent  form,  but  for  long  after  she  was  seen  to  return 
at  night  and  stay  till  dawn,  clasping  her  little  children 
to  her  breast.  Other  instances  will  be  found  in  a  later 
chapter ;  meanwhile,  I  cite  a  Kafir  story  which  bears 
some  resemblance  to  this  group.  A  man  had  a  wife 
who  was  miraculously  born,  and  was  never  to  appear 
in  the  daytime.  Her  father-in-law  sent  her  to  fetch 
water,  with  the  result  that  she  was  detained  by  the 
water-spirit.  Her  voice  was  heard  telling  what  had 
happened,  and  at  night  her  child  was  taken  down  to 
the  river  bank  by  the  nurse.  The  mother  came 
out  and  suckled  the  child,  forbidding  the  nurse  to  tell 
what  she  had  seen.  At  last  all  was  found  out ;  the 
husband  drew  his  wife  home ;  the  river  followed  and 
recaptured  her.  She  was  only  finally  recovered  by 
her  parents  sacrificing  an  ox  to  the  river,  in  accord- 
ance with  her  own  directions.^ 

As  final  examples,  we  must  note  stories  of  the 
Cinderella  cycle,  in  which  the  dead  mother,  as  an 
animal  or  tree,  or  from  her  grave,  assists  her  ill-used 

1  Ralston,  p.  183.  Thorpe,  Y.T.S.^  p.  35.  Cox,  p.  41.  There  are 
German,  Italian,  Bohemian,  Magyar,  and  Danish  versions.  The 
Polish  story  is  analysed  by  Miss  Cox,  p.  94.  Tawney,  Kathakoqa^ 
p.  85. 

2  Baring-Gould,  p.  478.  See  p.  329  infra.  Theal,  p.  54.  There 
is  a  Basuto  variant,  in  which  the  husband  insists  on  the  wife's 
fetching  him  water  in  the  daytime,  as  here ;  she  is,  however, 
changed  into  an  ant-heap,  but  afterwards  recovers  her  true  form  by 
the  help  of  the  sorcerer  who  gave  her  mother  the  miraculous  drug. 
Jacottet,  p.  206. 


COINCIDENTAL  PHANTASMS  47 

child,  and  others  of  the  Youngrest  Son  group,  where 
the  dead  father  causes  prosperity  to  his  faithful  son.^ 

While  these  stories  show  how  the  folk  of  various 
lands,  civilised  and  savage,  have  given  literary  form  to 
the  fact  of  undying  maternal  love,  illustrated  in  the 
Eskimo  belief  that  the  dead  mother  calls  for  her 
children  from  the  spirit  land,^  it  is  not  improbable 
that  the  presentation  of  the  fact  may  be  due  to  actual 
phantasmal  appearances  of  a  dead  mother  in  her  old 
home.  Gurney,  in  his  Phantasms  of  the  Living',  cites 
three  well-authenticated  instances  from  the  17th,  i8th, 
and  19th  centuries  respectively.^  In  all  of  these  a 
mother  dies  at  a  distance,  expressing  a  desire  to  see 
her  children,  and  at  the  time  of  her  death  her  phan- 
tasm is  seen  by  them  and  others.  Granting  the 
reality  of  such  appearances,  which  there  seems  no 
reason  to  doubt,  it  is  easy  to  refer  the  exaggerated 
form  of  the  tale — suckling  the  child,  recovery  of  the 
wife  from  the  dead — to  similar  actual  phantasmal 
appearances  in  the  remote  past.  At  all  events,  we 
know  that  it  is  a  strongly  held  article  of  the  savage 
creed  that  the  dead  return,  and  one  or  two  such 
appearances  would  readily  give  rise  to  stories  of  this 
type^ 

Qlie  "Swallow"  story  occurs  in  several  distinct 
cycles.  First  may  be  mentioned  the  Tom  Thumb 
group,  in  which  the  hero,  swallowed  by  a  cow,  fish, 
and  giant,  is  disgorged  in  safety.*  Next  we  note 
some  versions  of  Red  Riding- Hood,  with  the  heroine 
and  her  grandmother   swallowed  by  the  wolf,  and 

1  See  pp.  232,  367  infra. 

^  Letourneau,  Sociology^  p.  147.  Sometimes  the  child,  or  simply 
the  strap  with  which  he  was  carried,  is  buried  with  her. 

^  Gurney,  ii.  558,  560,  581.  Another  curious  case  is  given  by 
Miss  Cox,  p.  479. 

*  Hartland,  English  Folk  and  Fairy  Tales,  p.  272.  Deulin,  Contes, 
p.  326.     Cosquin,  ii.  190.     Grimm,  "Thumbling." 


48  SOME  FOLK-TALE  INCIDENTS 

afterwards  brought  to  life  when  the  wolf  is  killed.^ 
The  third  group  is  that  in  which  some  animal,  the 
fox  or  the  wolf,  swallows  several  others,  e.g^.,  a  goat's 
kids  or  goslings.  In  some  versions  the  mother  cuts 
his  stomach  open  when  he  is  asleep,  and  takes  out  her 
children,  filling  it  with  stones  and  sewing  it  up  again. 
On  waking  he  feels  thirsty,  and  goes  to  a  fountain  to 
drink,  but  the  weight  of  the  stones  makes  him  lose 
his  balance  and  he  is  drowned.  But  occasionally  the 
swallower  is  killed  before  the  animals  emerge,  and 
ihey,  like  MacLeod's  piper,  ''return  no  more."^ 
CWith  this  group  may  be  included  a  Hottentot  story. 
An  elephant  (in  a  variant,  a  girafife),  swallowed  a 
tortoise,  which  ate  his  liver,  heart,  and  kidneys,  so 
that  he  died,  after  which  the  tortoise  emerged  safe 
and  sounds  This  resembles  an  Australian  story,  in 
which  the  moon  swallowed  the  eagle,  but  the  wives  of 
the  latter  cut  the  moon's  stomach  open  with  a  stone 
axe  when  he  was  stooping  to  drink,  and  rescued  their 
husband.^  The  final  incident  of  a  Basuto  tale  is 
curious.  A  man  had  carried  his  daughter  to  a 
cannibal  chief,  hoping  that  he  would  eat  her,  but  he 
was  put  into  the  pot  himself,  and  the  chiefs  son  married 
the  daughter.  As  they  and  their  company  were 
travelling,  they  came  to  a  rock  which  blocked  the  way. 
It  was  the  heart  of  the  man,  thus  transformed,  and  it 
swallowed  everything  and  every  person  passing  that 
way.  When  the  daughter  and  her  husband  had  been 
gulped  down,  they  found  themselves  in  a  huge  cavern 
with  many  other  people.     A  boy  was  making  a  hole 


1  Grimm,  "  Red  Cap."  Cf.  a  Russian  story,  in  which  a  Baba  Yaga 
swallows  two  brothers,  but  is  forced  to  disgorge  them  by  the  third 
brother.     Ralston,  p.  72. 

2  Campbell,  iii.  103.  Grimm,  "Wolf  and  Goats."  Gubernatis 
ZM.^  i.  407.     Crane,  p.  267. 

3  Bleek,  p.  29.  Brough  Smyth,  Abor.  of  Victoria^  i.  432.  There 
is  a  Berber  story,  in  which  one  Islamite  saint  amuses  himself  by 
swallowing  and  then  disgorging  another.     Basset,  p.  32. 


"  SWALLOW  "  TALES  49 

in  the  side  with  his  knife,  and  when  he  had  cut  his 
way  through,  the  rock  fell  to  the  g^round,  and  all  who 
had  been  swallowed  escaped,  except  those  who  had 
been    suffocated.^      There    is    a    close    resemblance 
between  these  stories  and  those  of  the  next  group  as 
represented  by  a  Bohemian  story.     The  g^luttonous 
child  of  a  peasant  (formed  by  him  out  of  a  root  with 
his  axe),  begfan  to  devour  her  parents,  the  villagers, 
and  animals,  until  a  woman  killed  her  with  a  mattock, 
when  all  whom  she  had   swallowed  came  forth  in 
reverse  order.     So  a  djalmous,  escaping  with  a  girl, 
in  a  Tartar  story,  swallowed  sixty  camels,  forty  men, 
and  forty  girls,  who  were  disgorged  when  the  khan 
killed  the  monster.     Baiamee,  in  an  Australian  myth, 
delivered  his  wives  from  the  alligators  which   had 
swallowed  them,  and  restored  them  to  life  by  laying 
them  on  ants'  nests.     A  story  very  like  the  Bohemian 
glutton  tale  is  current  among  Kafirs  and  Yaos  ;  in  a 
variant  the  glutton  is  a  cannibal  mother,  who  eats  her 
children  and  several  people  of  the  village  in  which 
they  live.      A  bird  attacked  her,  and  tore  open  her 
stomach.     Many  of  her  victims  were  dead ;  the  others 
who  were  alive  came  forth,  buC  some  of  them  were 
caught  and  swallowed  again. ^  ^Mr  Lang  has  shown 
the  similarity  of  such  stories  to  the  Greek  myth  of 
Cronus,  who  swallowed  his  own  children,  till  Zeus 
caused  him  to  disgorge  the  stone  given  him  in  place 
of  himself,  after  which  the  children  came  forth  also.£) 

*  Jacottet,  p.  202.  Cf.  Callaway,  pp.  55,  181.  There  are  many 
such  stories  in  S.  African  folk-lore. 

2  Naake,  p.  226.  Radloff,  Hi.  315.  Parker,  p.  11.  Steere,  J.A.I.^ 
i.  141  ;  Theal,  p.  129.  Cf.  the  chapters  on  the  Dragon  Sacrifice,  and 
on  Cannibalism,  for  other  instances  of  the  hero  hacking  his  way 
through  the  monster's  stomach.  It  occurs  in  another  form  in  the 
story  of  Assiepattle  and  the  Stoor  Worm.  He  allowed  his  boat  to 
glide  down  the  dragon's  huge  throat,  and  then  put  a  burning  peat  in 
its  liver,  escaping  as  quickly  as  he  could  ;  see  p.  402  infra.  Cf.  the 
Fish-swallowing  stories  cited  in  the  next  group. 

^  Lang,  Custom  atid  Myth^  p.  53.     Hesiod,  Theogony^  497. 

D 


60  SOME  FOLK-TALE  INCIDENTS 

This  resembles  a  very  Involved  Bushman  myth,  In 
which  the  planet  Jupiter,  called  ''  Dawn's  Heart," 
swallows  another  star,  his  daughter,  dlsgorgmg  her 
when  she  Is  grown  up. 

In  another  group,  resembling  the  story  of  Jonah 
and  the  fish,  a  fish  swallows  the  hero,  who  afterwards 
escapes.  Of  this  there  are  Hindu,  Malay,  Samoan, 
Guiana,  and  Red  Indian  versions — all  remarkably 
alike. ^  Dr  Tylor,  following  Schlrren,  has  suggested 
that  the  Polynesian  story  of  Maui  may  supply  the 
clue  to  the  origin  of  this  and  all  the  other  groups  of 
"  swallow  "  stories.  When  Maui  was  born,  his  mother 
threw  him  Into  the  sea,  where  he  became  covered  with 
seaweed  and  jelly-fish.  Cast  ashore,  he  was  relieved 
of  these  excrescences  by  his  grandfather,  who  carried 
him  home.  Now,  Maui  Is  the  sun,  and  the  earth 
(including  the  sea)  Is  a  fish  in  Polynesian  mythology, 
and  it  is  thought  that  this  story  may  be  a  distorted 
version  of  a  myth  telling  how  the  sky  frees  the  sun 
from  the  covering  earth.  If  so,  the  distortion  is 
somewhat  pronounced.  But  the  supposition  gains 
force  from  another  Maui  story,  which  tells  how  he  met 
his  death  by  entering  his  grandmother's  body.  She 
dwells  on  the  horizon  where  earth  meets  the  sky. 
But  some  hold  that  Maui  died  only  to  revive  and 
recommence  his  career."  All  this  explains  itself  as  a 
story  told  to  show  why  the  sun,  conceived  of  as  a 
man,  disappears  as  if  swallowed  at  the  horizon.  We 
might  explain  the  other  fish  stories  by  the  theory  that 
men  who  saw  the  setting  sun  disappear  in  the  sea, 
might  think  it  had  been  swallowed  by  the  sea  or  by 
a  fish.  That,  at  least,  is  no  exaggeration  of  savage 
and  primitive  methods  of  thought.  In  this  way  the 
Piute  myth  of  the  sun  swallowing  the  stars  would 

1  Somadeva,  ii.  ii8.  Vishnu  Purana^  p.  575.  Turner,  pp.  331, 
337.  Im  Thurn,  p.  385.  Petitot,  p.  319.  A  Melanesian  version  will 
be  found  on  p.  436  infra. 

-  Tylor,  Early  Hist,  of  Mankind.     Grey,  pp.  18,  31,  35. 


SCHEME  OF  THE  WORK  51 

resolve  Itself  into  an  explanation  of  how  they  dis- 
appear at  sunrise.  So  in  a  Melanesian  myth  Qat 
cuts  the  Dawn  with  a  knife  out  of  Nigfht.^  All  thingfs 
are  conceived  by  primitive  races  as  actually  alive  and 
capable  of  human  actions.  Man's  feverish  desire  to 
know  the  causes  of  things  makes  him  invent  the  most 
plausible  stories  to  account  for  them,  but  these  stories 
presuppose  this  animistic  theory.  Hence  many 
"swallow"  myths  resolve  themselves  into  stories 
accounting  for  various  natural  phenomena.  As 
things  were  better  understood  the  myths  might 
remain,  but  would  now  be  told  of  a  man  and  a  fish, 
or  of  a  glutton.  Or  the  old  myths  might  supply  the 
motif  lo  an  inventive  story-teller,  which  would  explain 
the  origin  of  the  Tom  Thumb,  Red  Riding- Hood, 
and  other  folk- tale  groups.  But  all  alike  would  owe 
their  origin  to  early  myth,  to  savage  methods  of 
thought.  This,  however,  is  a  different  thing  from 
explaining  all  folk-tales  as  the  detritus  of  myth,  and 
as  the  result  of  a  ''disease  of  language."  It  is  only 
one  of  the  many  ways  in  which  folk-tales  have  arisen. 
In  the  chapters  which  follow  we  shall  discuss  at 
greater  length  various  folk- tale  conceptions,  as  arranged 
in  the  following  scheme : — (i)  Incidents  exhibiting 
primitive  psychology  —  The  Water  of  Life,  The 
Renewal  of  Life,  The  Separable  Soul ;  (2)  Incidents 
illustrating  magical,  animistic,  and  totemistic  beliefs — 
Transformation,  Inanimate  Objects  Speaking  and 
Acting,  Helpful  Animals,  Beast- Marriages ;  (3)  In- 
cidents illustrating  primitive  customs — Cannibalism, 
Tabu,  Inheritance  (the  Youngest  Son),  Sacrifice  (the 
Dragon  Sacrifice  and  the  Promised  Child);  (4)  In- 
cidents involving  mythological  explanations  of  things 
— Jack  and  the  Beanstalk. 

^  Codrington,  p.  162* 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  WATER  OF   LIFE 

If  death  was  the  king-  of  terrors  to  early  man,  none 
the  less  he  seems  to  have  believed  that  it  was  possible 
to  overcome  it.  Myth  told  of  a  time  when  it  was  not ; 
ritual  ceremonies  represented  the  dead  coming-  to  life 
again ;  the  soul,  it  was  believed,  could  be  recalled  to 
the  body  by  the  power  of  the  medicine-man.  This 
belief  has  given  birth  to  three  distinct  ideas,  which  are 
enshrined  in  many  folk-tales,  those  of  the  Water  of 
Life,  of  the  Dismembered  coming  to  life  again,  of  the 
External  or  Separable  Soul.  Folk- tales  containing 
these  incidents  are  of  the  most  varied  kind,  and  are 
found  current  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  thus  testifying 
at  once  to  man's  hatred  of  death,  and  his  desire  for 
life's  renewal  when  it  had  come  to  an  end.  In  this 
and  the  two  following  chapters  I  shall  treat  each  of 
these  incidents  separately,  and  try  to  throw  some  light 
upon  their  origin. 

The  ramifications  of  the  idea  that  a  certain  mystic 
water  can  resuscitate  or  restore  are  many,  and  I  can 
only  attempt  to  indicate  the  chief  of  them.  A  certain 
number  of  stories  may  be  cited  first,  to  show  the 
general  idea  at  work.  In  several  Russian  tales  two 
heroes  are  maimed  by  an  enchantress.  One  has  his 
feet  cut  off,  the  other  his  eyes  put  out.  They  live 
alone,  helping  each  other.  At  last  they  obtain  two 
waters,  from  a  snake,  or  from  a  Baba  Yaga  (a  kind  of 


VARIOUS  EPISODES  53 

snake-demon).  The  first  water  restores  feet  and  eyes, 
but  the  heroes  can  neither  walk  nor  see  until  the 
second,  the  Water  of  Life,  is  applied.^  The  eldest  of 
three  brothers  in  a  Lithuanian  story  kills  a  nine- 
headed  dragfon,  and  rescues  a  princess,  whose  servants, 
put  him  to  death.  A  lion  catches  a  crow,  and  forces 
it  to  bring-  the  Water  of  Life,  by  which  his  master  is 
revived.^  Geria,  a  Mingfrelian  hero,  having  won  a  fair 
maiden,  is  attacked  by  the  soldiers  of  the  Black  King 
and  finally  slain.  His  parents  having  seen  two  snakes 
pass  through  a  river  and  crawl  over  several  dead 
snakes  which  then  came  to  life,  take  some  of  the  water 
of  the  river  with  them.  Having  been  led  to  Geria's 
body  by  his  dog,  they  sprinkle  it  with  the  water,  and 
he  rises  whole  and  sound.  ^  A  Swedish  story  has 
some  features  in  common  with  this.  Silver-white  has 
married  a  princess  after  rescuing  her  from  three  trolls. 
He  is  challenged  to  mortal  combat  by  their  brother, 
who  first  treacherously  kills  the  hero's  dogs  by  magic, 
and  then  overcomes  their  master.  Little  Warder,  his 
foster-brother,  forces  the  troll  to  give  him  two  phials. 
With  the  contents  of  the  first  he  revives  his  brother. 
The  fluid  in  the  second,  being  poured  on  the  ground, 
petrifies  anyone  treading  on  it,  and  this  fate  is  meted 
out  to  the  troll.*  The  heroine  of  a  Greek  story 
restores  to  life  the  devil's  former  wives  by  means  of 
his  Water  of  Life,  after  she  has  found  them  petrified 
in  the  forbidden  chamber ;  while  a  prince  who  has 
met  the  same  fate  at  the  hands  of  a  Sicilian  Blue- 
beard, comes  alive  again  by  means  of  restorative 
ointment,  applied  by  the  youngest  of  three  sisters.* 
The  Italian  variant  of  this  Bluebeard  tale  makes  the 
heroine  restore  the  prince,  and  then  kill  the  pursuing 
ogre  by  means  of  the  "medicine  that  slays,"  stolen 


^  Ralston,  pp.  240,  253,  255.  ^  Leskien,  p.  389. 

^  Wardrop,  p.  118.  Cavallius,  p.  78. 

^  Schmidt,  p.  122  ;  Gonzenbach,  No.  23. 


54  THE  WATER  OF  LIFE 

from  the  forbidden  chamber.^  Such  healing  water  is 
common  to  all  European  folk-tales,  but  in  no  group  is 
it  so  variously  and  poetically  described  as  in  the 
Celtic.  There  it  is  called  the  Well  of  the  World,  the 
Water  of  the  Well  of  Virtues,  a  Well  of  True  Water, 
a  Reviving  Cordial,  a  Vessel  of  Cordial,  Balsam,  or 
simply  Living  Water.  In  '*  The  Rider  of  Grianaig  "  the 
carlin  tells  Iain  that  in  order  to  take  the  spells  off  the 
men  whom  she  had  petrified,  he  must  go  to  the  island 
of  big  women,  and  take  a  bottle  of  living  water  out  of 
it,  *'and  when  thou  rubbest  it  upon  them,  the  spells 
will  go,  and  they  will  come  alive.  "^ 

Two  brothers,  Moonshine  and  Sunshine,  were 
travelling  together,  says  a  Mongol  story,  when  the 
former  died  of  exhaustion.  Sunshine  sought  out  a 
hermit,  who  took  a  bottle  containing  a  life-restoring 
cordial,  and  going  to  the  spot  where  Moonshine  was 
buried,  restored  him  to  life  by  its  means.  In  another 
Mongol  tale  the  corpse  is  made  to  drink  the  potion, 
and  is  thus  revived.^  These  stories  are  derived  from 
Indian  sources,  where,  however,  life  is  usually  restored 
by  means  of  a  plant  or  fruit,  or  by  a  magic  rod,  or  by 
some  potion  known  only  to  the  gods.  Thus  a  divine 
princess  will  marry  none  but  him  who  will  plunge 
himself  as  a  sacrifice  into  boiling  oil.  King  Vikrama- 
ditya  does  so,  and  is  killed,  but  the  princess  asperges 
him  with  amrita,  and  he  revives,  more  beautiful  than 
before.* 

Most  of  the  stories  cited  make  use  of  the  Water 
of  Life  only  incidentally,  but  in  certain  other  groups,  in 
which  the  tales  are  clearly  related  as  variants,  it  plays 
a  more  important  part.     The  first  of  these  may  be 

^  Archivio^  iii.  368. 

2  Campbell,  iii.  22.  Cf.  i.  222  ;  ii.  141,  289  ;  iii.  22  ;  Hyde,  p.  41  ; 
M'Innes,  p.  197.  For  the  Weary  Well  at  the  World's  End  (the  Well  of 
True  Water),  see  p.  256. 

3  Miss  Busk,  pp.  75,  no. 

*  Jndische  Studien^  xv.  364. 


THE  PERSEUS  GROUP  55 

called  the  Perseus  group.  The  hero  having-  overcome 
the  dragon  or  ogre,  and  married  the  maiden,  is  over- 
powered by  a  witch,  slain,  or  petrified,  and  then  revived 
by  his  brother  or  some  other  hero.  Stories  of  this 
type  will  be  cited  in  a  later  chapter^ ;  I  shall  confine 
myself  here  to  Greek,  Russian,  and  Breton  variants. 
The  Greek  hero  having-  opened  a  door  in  the  palace 
where  the  maiden  had  been  imprisoned,  steps  into  a 
plain  crowded  with  statues.  An  old  woman  meets 
him,  and  turns  him  into  stone  by  means  of  a  magic 
wand.  His  brother  comes  to  rescue  him  with  his  dog. 
The  dog  tears  the  witch  to  pieces,  and  his  master 
finds  a  bottle  of  the  Water  of  Immortality  among  her 
possessions.  With  this  he  sprinkles  the  stony  form  of 
his  brother  as  well  as  the  statues  in  the  plain.  All  are 
brought  back  to  life,  and  he  becomes  their  king.^  In 
the  Italian  variant  the  second  brother  is  petrified,  as 
well  as  the  original  hero  —  the  witch  using  an 
enchanted  berry  for  the  purpose.  The  youngest 
brother  sets  out  to  seek  them,  taking  with  him  their 
life-token,  viz.,  the  blood  of  a  fish  which  their  mother 
had  eaten  before  their  conception.  He  rubs  the  two 
brothers  with  this  blood,  which  takes  the  place  of  the 
water  of  life  in  no  other  story  known  to  me,  and 
brings  them  back  to  life.^  The  hero  of  the  Russian 
version  is  killed  by  a  gipsy,  who  then  claims  to  have 
saved  the  maiden.  His  faithful  animals  bring  him 
back  to  life  by  means  of  the  Water  of  Healing.  His 
marriage  with  the  maiden  follows,  but  soon  after  he  Is 
attracted  to  the  house  of  a  Baba  Yaga,  who  turns  hirn 
and  his  animals  into  stone.  His  brother  is  warned  by 
the  life-token  that  something  is  wrong.  Off  he  goes 
to  seek  him,  is  taken  by  the  princess  for  her  husband, 
but  takes  the  usual  precaution  of  placing  a  sword 
between  them  on  the  three  nights  which  he  passes 
with  her.     Then  he  forces  the   Baba  to  give    him 

^  See  chapter  xiii.  ^  Legrand,  p.  i6i,  ^  Visentini,  p.  104. 


56  THE  WATER  OF  LIFE 

Water  of  Life  to  revive  his  brother  and  his  animals. 
But  the  latter,  jealous  that  his  rescuer  should  have 
slept  with  his  wife,  cuts  off  his  head,  fearing-  the 
worst.  Next  morning  he  restores  him  with  the  useful 
water  when  he  finds  out  that  no  harm  has  been  done.^ 
Lastly,  in  the  Breton  variant,  the  hero  is  cut  to  pieces 
by  the  witch,  whom  his  twin-brother  slays.  There- 
upon, a  princess  whom  she  has  transformed  into  a 
vixen,  recovers  her  shape,  and  she  and  the  young 
man  collect  the  pieces  of  the  hero's  body,  pour  the 
Water  of  Life  over  them,  and  so  bring  him  back  to 
life.2 

In  other  groups  of  stories  a  quest  for  the  Water  of 
Life  is  the  main  incident  of  the  tales,  but  the  purpose 
of  this  quest  varies.  In  the  first  three  groups  it  is  to 
cause  the  destruction  of  the  seeker,  through  the 
difficulties  involved  in  the  search.  These  may  be 
called  respectively  the  Impostor,  the  Traitress,  and 
the  Dancing- Water  types.  In  the  fourth  group, 
which  belongs  to  a  type  fully  dealt  with  in  the  chapter 
on  the  Youngest  Son,  the  water  is  sought  in  order  to 
give  life,  youth,  or  sight,  to  an  old  king. 

Before  passing  to  discuss  these  types,  a  Greek  story 
from  Cyprus,  which  falls  under  none  of  them,  may  be 
cited  as  showing  the  danger  of  the  quest.  Phiaka  is 
told  by  the  king  of  the  Drakos,  anxious  to  obtain  his 
wife,  to  bring  him  a  bottle  of  the  Water  of  Life, 
which  is  away  in  the  farthest  East,  between  two 
mountains  which  open  and  shut  continually,  and 
guarded  by  a  Drako.  The  king  thinks  that  Phiaka 
will  never  return,  but  he,  assisted  by  two  comrades, 
obtains  the  water,  and  brings  it  in  time  to  revive  his 
ten  brothers-in-law,  slain  in  defending  his  castle  and 
his  wife  against  the  king.^ 

In  the  Impostor  cycle  of  tales*  the  godson  of  a 

^  Leskien,  544.     This  is  a  typical  form  of  the  story,  for  the  many 
variants  of  which,  see  infra^  p.  382. 

2  Luzel,  p.  63.  ^  Garnett,  ii.  67.  *  See  pp.  6,  213  infra. 


/ 

THE  IMPOSTOR  CYCLE  57 

kingf  gfoes  to  seek  his  gfodfather,  and  is  met  by  a  man 
who  forces  him  to  vow  that  he  will  not  reveal  that  he 
is  the  king's  gfodson  until  three  days  after  his  death. 
The  impostor  then  personates  the  real  Simon  Pure, 
and  induces  the  king-  to  impose  certain  tasks  upon  the 
hero.  One  of  these  is  to  discover  the  king- s  daughter, 
held  prisoner  by  a  queen  with  silver  feet.  This  queen 
also  sets  him  several  tasks  before  she  will  yield  the  prin- 
cess, one  being  to  seek  for  the  Water  of  Life  and  the 
Water  of  Death.  The  hero's  friendly  animals  include 
the  general  of  the  crows,  who  bids  two  of  them  lead 
the  hero  to  the  subterranean  place  where  the  waters 
are  kept.  With  these  he  returns  to  the  palace,  and 
having  rescued  the  princess,  throws  the  Water  of 
Death  in  the  queen's  face  and  kills  her.  Having 
returned  with  the  princess,  she  shows  a  marked 
preference  for  him  instead  of  the  impostor  bridegroom, 
who  kills  him.  The  body  is  discovered  three  days 
after,  when  the  princess,  producing  the  phial  of  Water 
of  Life,  throws  it  over  the  hero,  who  revives  at  once. 
Absolved  now  from  his  vow,  he  tells  the  whole  story, 
and  the  impostor  is  put  to  death.  This  is  the  form 
of  the  story  as  it  is  told  in  Lorraine,  with  great  wealth 
of  detail,  and  not  a  little  artistic  skill. ^  It  is  obvious 
that  the  inventor  of  the  tale  cleverly  used  the  Water 
of  Life  incident  as  that  upon  which  the  plot  of  the 
story  hinged.  This,  like  many  another  story  cycle 
yet  to  be  considered,  proves  that  the  primitive  novelist 
was  by  no  means  destitute  of  literary  craft  and 
imaginative  power. 

There  are  Greek,  Breton,  Servian,  and  Albanian 
variants  of  this  tale,  while  in  a  Pisan  version  the  hero 
is  journeying  to  the  court  of  his  uncle,  the  king  of 
Portugal.  The  impostor  causes  him  to  be  sent  to 
seek  the  queen,  Granadoro,  who  has  disappeared. 
The  last  task  imposed  on  him  by  his  aunt  is  to  bring 

^  Cosquin,  i.  32. 


58  THE  WATER  OF  LIFE 

the  Water  of  Life  from  the  summit  of  an  inaccessible 
mountain.  A  friendly  bird  assists  him,  and  in  the 
sequel  the  queen  restores  him  to  life  after  his  murder 
by  the  pretended  nephew.^ 

In  these  stories  the  destruction  of  the  hero  is  not 
so  markedly  aimed  at  in  his  quest  for  the  water  as  it 
is  in  the  next  two  cycles.  The  princess  puts  off  the 
time  of  her  return  as  much  throug^h  female  coquetry, 
perhaps,  as  from  any  desire  to  hurt  the  hero.  But 
the  next  series  has  a  more  sinister  object.  Taking 
the  Traitress  cycle  first,^  we  find  a  woman,  who  is 
sister,  mother,  or  wife  of  the  hero,  leagued  with  some 
monster,  and  seeking  to  get  rid  of  him.  In  the  Italian 
version  a  queen,  unfaithful  to  her  husband,  is  put  in 
prison,  where  she  gives  birth  to  a  son  who  rescues  her 
from  confinement.  While  escaping  they  encounter 
several  cyclops,  all  but  one  of  whom  the  lad  kills. 
This  one  persuades  the  mother  to  compass  her  son's 
destruction  by  sending  him  for  the  water  of  a  certain 
fountain.  He  succeeds,  but  on  his  return  is  cut  to 
pieces  by  the  cyclops.  Later,  he  is  restored  by  means 
of  the  water  by  a  princess,  whom  he  marries,  after  kill- 
ing the  cyclops  and  his  mother.^  A  Norse  hero  has  two 
lions  which  help  him  in  his  troubles.  His  mother  has 
leagued  with  a  troll  against  him,  and  puts  out  his  eyes. 
He  wanders  off  with  the  lions,  who  see  a  blind  hare 
pass  through  a  river  and  recover  its  sight.  They 
lead  him  to  the  river,  where  the  same  miracle  is 
wrought  on  him.*  In  this  story  there  is  no  quest, 
but  another  usual  type  of  the  Water  of  Life  incident 
is  resorted  to.  We  return  to  the  quest  in  a  Russian 
story,  where  the  hero's  sister,  at  the  instigation  of  her 
demon  lover,  sends  him  to  get  Healing  and  Vivifying 


^  Greeks  Hahn,  No.  37,  the  hero  is  the  king's  own  son ;  Breton^ 
Luzel,  No.  10;  Servian^  Jagitch,  No.  i  ;  Albanian^  Dozon,  No.  12; 
Pisan,  Comparetti,  No.  5. 

2  See  p.  246,  note  i.  -^  Crane,  p.  53.  *  Dasent,  p.  167. 


THE  DANCING-WATER  CYCLE  59 

Water  from  two  mountains  which  fly  apart  for  three 
minutes  each  day.  Amidst  tempest  and  thunder  the 
hero  spurs  his  steed  into  the  cleft,  fills  two  flasks  with 
the  water,  and  rushes  back.  The  hind  legs  of  his 
horse  are  caught  by  the  clangfing-  rocks,  but  healed 
by  the  opportune  waters.^  Among  the  Kabyles  the 
wife  is  the  traitress.  A  huntsman,  having  killed  seven 
ogres,  remains  in  their  palace.  One  is  not  really  dead, 
and  makes  love  to  the  wife,  who  is  induced  to  send 
her  husband  for  the  Water  of  Life  and  the  Apple  of 
Youth.  On  his  return  she  kills  him  and  sets  his  body 
on  a  horse.  A  friend,  to  whom  he  has  intrusted 
the  water,  revives  him  and  then  slays  the  guilty  pair.^ 
A  negro  and  the  hero's  sister  send  him  for  the  Water 
and  Grapes  of  Paradise  in  an  Arab  tale  from  Egypt, 
while  in  another,  Mohammed's  mother  is  the  traitress. 
In  both  stories  a  princess  restores  the  murdered  hero 
with  the  precious  fluid. ^ 

The  Dancing- Water  cycle  is  best  illustrated  by  a 
Basque  story.  Three  children  born  to  a  king's 
wife  are  exposed  by  her  jealous  elder  sisters,  who 
pretend  that  she  has  given  birth  to  puppies.  The 
two  boys  and  their  little  sister  are  brought  up  by  a 
gardener.  One  day  an  old  woman  meets  them  and 
tells  them  they  can  never  be  happy  till  they  find  ''  the 
tree  which  sings,  the  bird  which  tells  the  truth,  and  the 
water  which  makes  young  again."  The  brothers  go 
off  to  seek  these,  but,  disobeying  their  instructions, 
are  turned  to  stone.  Their  sister  sets  out  to  seek 
them,  and  on  the  top  of  a  mountain  finds  the  water 
and  fills  her  bottle  with  it.     A  tree  breaks  into  song, 

^  Afanasief,  vi,  249 ;  Ralston,  p.  235.  In  a  Polynesian  myth, 
rocks  open  at  the  chanting  of  a  spell  and  admit  to  the  land  of  the 
shades.  Clarke,  p.  35.  Such  rocks  occur  in  S.  African  tales.  QCp.  268. 
Cf,  also  the  clashing  rocks  in  the  ArgonauHca^  book  ii.,  through 
which  the  Argo  passes  safely  and  breaks  their  power  for  ever. 

2  Basset,  p.  222. 

^  Spitta  Bey,  No.  10  ;  Dulac,  No.  4.  In  a  variant  animals  restore 
the  hero  to  life. 


60  THE  WATER  OF  LIFE 

and  a  bird,  flyingf  to  her  shoulder,  tells  her  several 
strange  thingfs.  On  two  stones  near  by  she  pours  a 
drop  of  the  water.  They  turn  into  her  brothers,  and 
all  gfo  off  with  their  treasures.  In  the  sequel  the 
children  are  recovered  by  their  parents,  and  the  sisters 
are  burnt  alive. ^  In  the  Italian  variant  it  is  the 
wicked  sisters-in-law  who  send  the  nurse  to  tell  the 
children  of  the  treasures.  The  g"irl  dips  a  feather  into 
a  jar  of  the  water  and  anoints  the  statues  with  it. 
when  they  come  alive.  ^  This  story  is  told  with 
exquisite  grace  in  the  Arabian  Nig'hts,  where  the 
treasures  are  the  Speaking  Tree,  Singing  Bird,  and 
Inexhaustible  Dancing- Water.  Having  obtained 
these,  the  girl  forces  the  bird  to  tell  her  how  to  restore 
her  brothers,  who  had  broken  the  usual  tabu.  He 
directs  her  to  a  pitcher  of  water  which  she  must  pour 
over  all  the  statues  in  the  place,  and  having  done  so, 
her  brothers  and  an  illustrious  company  at  once 
spring  into  life.^  As  told  in  Kashmir,  the  first  and 
second  brothers  fail  in  getting  the  bird  which  speaks 
for  their  sister.  The  youngest  brother  succeeds,  and 
it  is  he  who  obtains  the  golden  water  which  releases 
his  brothers  and  other  petrified  seekers.* 

This  story  is  told  in  every  European  country, 
in  Sicily,  Lorraine,  Tyrol,  Brittany,  Russia,  Ger- 
many, and  in  Greece ;  but  in  some  cases,  as  in  the 
variant  from  Lorraine,  the  girl,  who  has  been  turned 
into  a  pillar  of  salt,  is  not  restored  by  the  Water  of 
Life  but  by  the  magic  bird  pecking  her  head,  while  in 
an  Arab  version  the  brother  resumes  his  shape  only 
when  his  sister  compels  the  beautiful  Jesensulchar  to 
come  out  of  her  cave.^    But  it  is  far  from  unlikely  that 

1  Webster,  p.  176.  2  Crane,  p.  17. 

2  Scott,  iv.  135.  4  Knowles,  p.  397. 

^  Sicily,  Pitr6,  No.  36 ;  Lorraine,  Cosquin,  i.  186 ;  Tyrol, 
Schneller,  No.  26;  Brittany,  Melusine,  1877,  col.  206;  Russia, 
Gubernatis,  Z.M.,  ii.  174;  Germany,  Wolf,  p.  168;  Greece,  Hahn, 
No.  69. 


THE  FOURTH  "QUEST"  TYPE  61 

restoration  by  means  of  the  mystic  water  was  the 
primitive  form  of  the  story. 

In  the  next  cycle  the  quest  has  a  good  end  in  view, 
though  the  hero  is  still  subjected  to  trial  through  the 
jealousy  of  his  brothers  or  brothers-in-law.  Where 
three  brothers  are  concerned,  the  main  points  of  the 
story  are  these.  A  king,  becoming  blind  or  turning 
old,  sends  his  elder  sons  to  seek  the  Water  of  Life. 
They  refuse  help  to  some  man  or  animal  at  the  outset, 
are  in  consequence  enchanted  (as  in  the  German 
version),  or  go  on  and  waste  their  substance  in  riotous 
living.  Meanwhile  the  despised  youngest  son,  who  is 
sometimes  a  hunchback  or  a  fool,  obtains  a  reluctant 
permission  to  go  on  the  quest.  He  is  civil  to  the  man 
or  animal,  and  thus  obtains  help  and  guidance,  finds 
the  water,  and  usually  rescues  a  princess  imprisoned 
in  the  castle  where  it  is  kept.  On  their  way  home  his 
ungrateful  brothers  get  rid  of  him,  and  go  off  with  the 
water  and  the  princess.  In  some  cases  the  water  will 
not  cure  until  the  hero,  who  has  been  rescued,  arrives 
at  the  palace  and  exposes  the  treachery  of  his  brothers, 
who  are  punished.  In  a  few  variants  the  princess  is 
left  behind,  and  some  time  after  has  a  child.  She  sets 
out  to  find  the  father,  and  arrives  in  time  to  rescue 
him.  This  occurs  in  the  Celtic  version,  while  in  the 
Hungarian  variant  the  princess  is  a  fairy,  and  sends  to 
seek  the  father.  The  elder  brothers  claim  paternity, 
and  have  to  submit  to  the  test  of  jumping  into  a 
cauldron  of  boiling  oil.  They  shrivel  up  to  the  size  of 
a  crab-apple.  The  youngest  brother,  whom  his  father, 
through  the  magic  change,  has  forgotten,  and  who  has 
become  the  swineherd,  emerges  safe  and  sound,  and 
is  duly  married  to  the  fairy. 

With  more  or  less  modification  of  detail  (some- 
times it  is  a  marvellous  bird  which  is  sought  for)  the 
story  is  found  all  over  Europe.^     In  a  literary  form  it 

^  The  variants  known  to  me  are  these  -.—Celtic^  Campbell,  i. 
i68 ;   Irish^  Kennedy,   ii.    47 ;   Norse,  Asbjoemsen,   364 ;   Swedish^ 


62  THE  WATER  OF  LIFE 

is  the  basis  of  the  Persian  romance  of  the  Rose  of 
Bakawali,  where  a  king-,  at  sight  of  his  fifth  son,  is 
struck  with  blindness.  The  four  elder  sons  set  out 
for  the  rose  which  alone  can  restore  his  sight,  lose 
all  their  possessions,  and  are  branded  as  slaves. 
The  fifth  brother  wins  back  these  possessions  and 
finds  the  rose,  which  his  brothers  steal  from  him. 
The  king  recovers  his  sight,  but  the  treachery  of  the 
brothers  is  discovered  through  the  brand  on  their 
backs,  and  the  hero's  claim  being  acknowledged,  he 
marries  the  peerless  beauty  from  whom  he  had  stolen 
the  rose.^ 

In  another  group  of  tales,  which  are  probably  based 
upon  what  seems  to  me  the  earlier  cycle,  we  have  to 
deal  with  three  brothers-in-law.  Fidel,  say  the 
Basques,  married  a  king's  daughter.  The  king, 
becoming  old  and  blind,  is  told  of  a  water  which 
makes  young  and  another  which  restores  sight. 
Two  sons-in-law  set  out  to  seek  them,  but  soon  tire  of 
the  quest.  Fidel  obtains  the  precious  waters  from 
an  old  woman,  and,  following  her  advice,  sells  them  to 
the  brothers-in-law  for  two  golden  apples.  They,  of 
course,  get  the  credit  of  obtaining  them ;  but  the 
despised  Fidel  in  the  end  gets  his  due  as  well  as  the 
crown,  while  they  are  banished  to  a  desert  place. ^  In 
the  Greek  variant  the  youngest  princess  has  married 
a  prince  disguised  as  the  gardener.  He  obtains  the 
Water  of  Life,  and  pretends  to  give  it  to  his  haughty 
brothers-in-law,  provided  they  let  him  mark  their 
backs  with  his  horse's  shoe.     What  he  really  gives  is 


Cavallius,  No.  9  ;  Lorraine^  Cosquin,  i.  208  ;  German^  Grimm,  No. 
57  ;  Bohemian^  Chodzko,  285  ;  Wallachian^  Schott,  No.  26  ;  Russian^ 
Ralston,  286 ;  Transylvanian^  Haltrich,  No.  7  ;  Hungarian^  Jones, 
p.  288  ;  Austrian^  Vernaleken,  Nos.  52  and  53  ;  Polish^  Toeppen,  p. 
154;  Sicilian^  Gonzenbach,  No.  64;  Lithuanian^  Schleicher,  p.  26; 
Tyrolese^  Zingerle,  ii.  225. 

1  Clouston,  Eastern  Romances^  p.  237  seq. 

'  Webster,  p.  iii. 


A  MAORI  TALE  63 

a  bottle  of  ordinary  water,  so  that  their  boasting  is  all 
in  vain,  and  the  despised  gardener,  having  wrought 
the  cure,  becomes  the  king's  heir.^  Other  fluids  than 
water  are  found  in  several  variants  of  this  brother- 
in-law  cycle.  In  a  Roumanian  version  the  quest  is 
for  milk  of  red  wild  goats ;  in  two  Tyrolese  tales,  for 
dragon's  blood  and  the  milk  of  a  tigress  ;  the  water  of 
the  queen  of  Hungary  occurs  in  a  Lorraine  version  ; 
while  Juanillo,  a  Spanish  hero,  obtains  the  milk  of  a 
lioness  as  well  as  the  Water  of  Life.^  The  story  is 
also  current  in  Egypt,  where  the  king  falls  ill  when 
his  daughter  marries  the  gardener's  boy.  The  youth 
finds  the  requisite  milk  of  a  young  bear,  and  cedes  it 
to  the  brothers-in-law  on  condition  that  they  allow 
themselves  to  be  branded.^  It  is  obvious  that  such 
curious  fluids  have  replaced  the  more  primitive  Water 
of  Life,  as  adding  to  the  difficulty  of  the  quest  by 
their  uniqueness,  while  the  same  is  doubtless  true  of 
the  magic  bird  which  heals. 

These  stories  have  shown  us  how  the  mystic  water 
cures  as  well  as  restores  to  life.  To  this  aspect  of  it 
we  shall  return  later ;  meanwhile  its  power  of  giving 
immortality  must  be  considered.  This  power  will 
introduce  us  to  some  stories  from  savage  lands.  The 
Maoris  know  of  this  immortal  water.  Ina  was  carried 
off  by  the  moon-god,  and  became  the  moon-goddess. 
Her  husband  allowed  her  earthly  lover  to  come  and 
be  her  servant,  but  in  time  he  grew  old  and  must 
leave  the  land  of  the  immortals.  ''  Death  itself  must 
never  enter  this  fair  realm.  Such  is  the  law  of 
Marama,  my  husband,  who  each  month  bathes  in  the 
life-restoring  lake  of  Tane,  the  great  god  of  light.     I 

^  Hahn,  No.  6  (from  Epirus). 

-  Roumanian  Fairy  Tales^  p.  27  ;  Schneller,  No.  20  ;  Cosquin,  i.  133  ; 
Romancero  General^  No.  1264. 

^  Spitta  Bey,  No.  12.  Many  Eastern  variants  omit  the  quest,  but 
the  youngest  brother-in-law  performs  many  doughty  deeds,  and  is 
only  discovered  to  be  the  hero  after  a  long  time. 


64  THE  WATER  OF  LIFE 

also  have  been  sprinkled  with  the  waters  that 
make  youth  eternal."  Sorrowfully  the  poor  mortal 
lover  took  his  way  back  to  earth.  Again,  when  the 
hero  Maui  descends  to  the  shades  his  father  sprinkles 
him  with  the  living  waters  of  Tane,  that  he  may 
destroy  the  goddess  of  death  ;  but  he  left  out  some  of 
the  incantations,  and  Maui  was  overcome  at  last. 
When  Maui  fought  with  her,  he  tried  in  vain  "to 
make  her  promise  that  man  should  be  like  the  moon, 
whose  life  is  renewed  each  month  by  bathing  in  the 
waters  of  the  lake  of  Tane."  Here  the  immortal 
water  is  made  use  of  to  explain  the  mystery  of  the 
new  moon,  as  in  Lithuanian  belief  the  mother  of  the 
Thunder-god  daily  bathes  the  weary  Sun  and  sends 
it  reinvigorated  on  its  daily  round. ^  So,  too,  the 
Mongols  believe  that  man  was  meant  to  be  immortal. 
A  Lama  created  animals  and  birds,  and  sent  the  crow 
with  a  cupful  of  water,  which  he  was  to  pour  drop  by 
drop  on  the  head  of  all  men,  so  that  they  might 
become  immortal.  The  crow  flew  off,  but  soon 
perched  on  a  tree  and  began  croaking.  Down  fell 
the  cup,  and  men  remained  mortal,  but  where  the 
water  fell  three  evergreen  trees  sprang  up,  which  are 
always  fresh  and  never  die.^  We  go  back  in  time,  and 
find  that  one  of  the  early  myths  of  Babylonia  tells 
how  when  Ea  created  the  first  man  Adapa,  the  latter 
made  the  great  divinity  Anu  angry,  and  was  summoned 
before  him.  ''  They  will  offer  thee  food  of  death,"  said 
Ea,  "do  not  eat.  They  will  offer  thee  water  of  death, 
do  not  drink."  Adapa  contrived  to  please  Anu,  but 
having  seen  the  secrets  of  heaven,  he  must  be  admitted 
to  the  circle  of  the  gods  and  be  made  immortal.  So 
they  offered  him  food  of  life  and  the  water  of  life,  but 
he  refused  both,  thinking  them  to  be  the  food  and 
water  of  death,   and  remained  mortal,   for  Ea  had 

^  Clarke,  pp.  38,  124.     Ralston,  Songs  0/ Russian  People,  p.  189. 
^  F.L.J. ,  iv.  27.     Note  the  connection  of  the  Crow  with  the  Water, 
and  see  p.  78. 


THE  FOUNTAIN  OF  YOUTH  65 

determined  that  man  should  never  be  immortal.  In 
an  Aleutian  tale  men  did  once  enjoy  immortality,  for 
when  age  came  on  they  plunged  into  a  lake  on  a  lofty 
mountain  and  came  forth  fresh  and  vigorous.  But  a 
god  killed  the  brother  of  his  earthly  mistress,  and 
since  then  all  men  are  subject  to  death.  In  many  of 
the  higher  mythologies  even  the  gods  retain  their  im- 
mortality only  by  drinking  some  immortal  draught  or 
eating  some  immortal  food,  which  at  an  earlier  stage 
may  have  simply  been  the  Water  of  Life.  The 
Hindu  gods  were  made  immortal  by  drinking  soma, 
and  admitted  their  true  worshippers  to  this  privilege. 
Similar  qualities  were  ascribed  to  haoma  by  the 
Persians,  while  the  Greeks  knew  of  the  divine  nectar, 
the  Scandinavians  of  Idhunn's  apples  of  gold  which 
the  gods  ate  whenever  they  grew  old,  the  Celts  of  the 
banquet  (chiefly  of  beer)  prepared  by  the  god 
Goibniu  to  preserve  his  fellow-divinities  immortal.^ 

A  whole  series  of  tales  introduces  us  to  the 
Fountain  of  Immortal  Youth  which  men  go  to  seek, 
dying  often  in  the  quest  by  the  sad  irony  of  things. 
Sometimes,  as  in  a  Hungarian  tale,  it  is  known  only 
to  the  fairies.  A  man  has  grown  old  and  shrivelled 
through  losing  his  fairy  wife,  who  has  left  him 
because  he  has  broken  the  tabu  which  bound  him  to 
her.  At  last  he  finds  her.  '*  Surely  you  don't  expect 
me  to  be  your  wife — an  old,  bent,  shrivelled-up  man 
like  you ! "  But  secretly  she  bids  her  attendants 
gather  all  sorts  of  rejuvenating  plants,  and  bring  some 
youth-giving  waters,  and  prepare  a  bath  with  them. 
This  done,  they  seize  him  and  throw  him  into  the 
bath,  from  which  he  emerges  a  hundred  times  hand- 
somer than  he  had  been  in  his  youth.^  The  Fountain 
of  Youth  is  introduced  freely  into  many  mediaeval 
fabliaux,  and  there  is  little  doubt  that,  like  the  elixir 

^  Jastrow,  Religion  of  Babylonia^  p.  544.     Farrer,  p.  13.     Thorpe, 
i.  34.    Jubainville,  Le  Cycle  Myth.  Irlandais,  p.  309. 
^  Jones,  p.  109. 


66  THE  WATER  OF  LIFE 

of  life,  it  fired  the  Imagination  of  many  at  that  time. 
It  was  thought  by  some  that  fairies  dipped  their 
children  In  such  a  fountain  in  order  to  make  them  free 
from  dyin^  flesh  and  dull  mortality y  as  Fletcher  sings 
in  his  Faithful  Shepherdess.  Further  east  there  is 
the  Indian  vijard  nadd,  or  ageless  river,  probably  that 
referred  to  by  Mandeville,  while  reference  to  a  similar 
fountain  occurs  in  early  Turkish  and  Persian  poetry. 
It  Is  In  a  land  of  darkness,  surrounded  by  a  sea  of 
darkness,  or  In  an  isle  of  the  isles  of  the  sea.  Both 
Moses  and  Alexander  the  Great  set  out  to  seek  it,  but 
the  quest  was  not  for  them.  One  of  Solomon's 
officers,  however,  discovered  It  for  him,  but  the  merry 
monarch  of  the  East  would  not  drink  it,  lest  he  should 
survive  his  mistresses — reasoning  worthy  of  our  own 
Charles  II.  This  Mohammedan  fable  has  also  Influ- 
enced the  Malaysian  followers  of  the  prophet,  who 
think  that  the  waters  of  the  Nile  confer  the  gift  of 
youth  on  those  who  bathe  in  them.  Such  fountains 
are  spoken  of  in  Japan  :  one  is  hidden  on  the  summit 
of  the  sacred  mountain,  Fuji  Yama,  and  whoso  finds 
and  drinks  it  will  live  for  ever.  We  have  already 
referred  to  the  Polynesian  lake  of  Tane  ;  in  Africa  we 
have  "the  fountain  of  the  Ethiopians"  spoken  of  by 
Herodotus  long  ago.  Across  the  Atlantic,  "from  the 
tropical  forests  of  Central  America  to  the  coral-bound 
Antilles,  the  natives  told  the  Spaniards  marvellous 
tales  of  a  fountain  whose  magic  waters  would  heal 
the  sick,  rejuvenate  the  aged,  and  confer  an  ever 
youthful    immortality."^      But    east    and  west,   this 

1  Clouston,  p.  521.  Garnett,  ii.  442.  Tylor,  E.H.M.^  p.  351. 
Alexander's  slaves  drank  a  flask  of  the  water  sent  by  King  Ivant ; 
they  are  now  elves  and  will  live  for  ever — Gaster,  Greeko-Slav.  Lit.^ 
p.  99.  St  John,  i.  41.  Griffis,  pp.  214,  218.  Taoist  priests  are 
believed  to  possess  an  elixir  of  immortality — Giles,  i.  17.  Dorman,  p. 
314.  Tylor,  op.  cit.^  suggests  that  the  sun  going  wearily  down  into 
the  western  sea,  and  returning  thence  fresh  and  young,  may  have 
given  rise  to  the  myth.  Cf.  the  Polynesian  myth  ;  and  Grimm,  D.M.^ 
p.  554. 


THE  ABANDONED  WIFE  67 

fountain,  like  many  another  fabled  treasure,  is  still  to 
seek. 

The  power  of  the  mag-ic  water  to  restore  sight  or 
limbs  which  have  been  cut  off,  is  found  in  two 
interesting-  story  cycles,  those  of  the  Abandoned  Wife, 
and  of  Truth  and  Falsehood.  The  former  may  be 
illustrated  by  a  story  from  Romagna,  where  a  childless 
lady  has  her  hands  cut  off  by  her  husband  because 
she  is  so  charitable.  Finally,  when  she  bears  him 
twins,  his  mistress  persuades  him  she  has  been  un- 
faithful, and  he  casts  her  off.  "At  last  she  came  to 
a  well,  and  stooped  to  drink.  And  lo !  as  soon  as  she 
did  this  her  hands  g-rew  ag^ain,  for  it  was  the  fountain 
which  renews  life  and  youth."  Throug-h  the  ag-ency 
of  a  fairy  she  regains  her  husband's  love,  and  his 
mistress  is  turned  to  stone. ^  In  the  Hung^arian 
variant  it  is  the  girl's  jealous  mother  who  causes  her 
hands  to  be  cut  off.  She  wanders  to  a  country  where 
she  finds  a  lake  full  of  magic  water  which  restores  the 
maimed  limbs  of  all  who  bathe  in  it.^  The  Virgin 
meets  the  outcast  wife  in  the  Tyrolese  version,  and 
directs  her  to  the  water  of  life,  but  here  as  in  several 
corresponding  variants  the  girl's  mother  has  first  cut 
off  her  hands,  then  a  prince  has  married  her  out  of 
compassion.  She  bears  him  twins.  The  jealous 
queen-mother  tells  him  she  has  given  birth  to  puppies, 
whereupon  she  wanders  off  with  her  children.^  The 
Kashmir  version  tells  of  seven  queens  blinded  and 
thrown  into  a  well  by  their  husband  at  the  instigation 
of  an  eighth  queen,  who  is  a  rakshasi.  They  receive 
their  sight  with  a  "medicine"  which  one  of  their  sons 
receives  from  the  rakskasts  mother.      This  story  is 

1  Leland,  E.R.R.,  p.  226.  ^  Jones,  p.  186. 

^  Schneller,  No.  50.  The  variants  are,  Sicilian^  Gonzenbach,  No. 
24  ;  German^  Proehle,  No.  36  ;  Lithuanian^  Leskien,  No.  46  ;  Breton^ 
Sebillot,  i.  15  ;  Norman^  Fleury,  p.  151.  Cf.  the  True  Bride  stories 
(p.  23),  which  have  some  analogy  in  their  incidents  to  those  of  this 
cycle. 


68  THE  WATER  OF  LIFE 

also  found  in  Bengal.^  Among  the  Swahilis  a  brother 
cuts  off  a  sister's  right  hand,  and  then  slanders  her  to 
the  prince  who  has  married  her.  She  is  sent  away, 
and  in  the  course  of  her  wanderings  saves  the  life  of  a 
snake,  who  shows  her  a  lake  where,  by  dipping  her  arm 
into  its  waters,  she  recovers  her  hand.^ 

The  Truth  and  Falsehood  cycle  offers  perhaps  as 
many  variants  as  any  folk-tale,  and  with  many  differ- 
ences of  detail  seems  to  insist  constantly  on  the  moral 
lesson  of  the  superiority  of  virtue  in  the  end.  The 
Hungarian  version  describes  how  Truth,  refusing  to 
admit  that  Falsehood  is  better,  is  blinded  and  left 
helpless  by  the  latter,  but  lying  near  the  gallows  she 
hears  two  devils  talking.  One  announces  that  he  has 
just  killed  a  physician,  who  had  discovered  that  if 
cripples  rolled  about,  and  the  blind  washed  their  eyes 
in  the  dew  on  the  night  of  the  new  moon,  they  would 
be  healed.  The  other  declares  he  has  cut  off  the 
water-supply  of  the  next  town.  Truth  takes  advan- 
tage of  what  she  has  heard,  rubs  her  eye-sockets  with 
dew,  and  has  her  sight  restored.  Then  she  goes  to 
the  town,  and  tells  how  the  supply  of  water  may  be 
recovered.  She  is  honoured  and  well  paid.  Mean- 
while Falsehood  has  become  very  poor  and  goes  to 
Truth  for  food.  In  exchange  for  it  her  eyes  are  put 
out  and  her  arms  cut  off,  and  Truth  leads  her  to  the 
gallows.  There  the  devils  find  her,  and,  supposing  she 
is  the  person  who  listened  to  their  conversation,  tear 
her  in  pieces.^  In  several  variants  two  companions  or 
two  brothers  take  the  place  of  Truth  and  Falsehood, 
and  sometimes,  as  in  the  Lorraine  variant,  they  cast 
lots  as  to  who  should  be  blinded  in  order  to  be  in  a 
better  position  to  beg.  This  one  is  then  ill-treated  by 
the  other  and  abandoned.*  Different  animals,  again, 
take  the  place  of  the  demons,  spirits,  or  genii  of  some 

1  Knowles,  p.  49  ;  Day,  p.  123.  -^  Steere,  p.  393. 

3  Jones,  p.  27.  *  Cosquin,  i.  84. 


TRUTH  AND  FALSEHOOD  69 

stories,  and  in  the  great  majority  of  the  tales  they  tell 
how  a  king-  or  a  king's  daughter  can  only  be  cured  by 
the  water  of  a  springy  near  at  hand.  The  listener  first 
heals  himself,  then  goes  disguised  as  a  physician  to 
court,  saves  the  royal  sufferer,  and  is  rewarded  with 
the  hand  of  the  princess  in  marriage.^ 

In  the  East,  as  in  Europe,  this  story  has  a  wide 
popularity,  though  there  something  else  than  the 
Water  of  Life  is  revealed  as  the  cure.  The  afreet  in 
the  story  of  the  Well-intentioned  and  the  Double- 
minded  in  the  Arabian  Nig'kts  tells  how  an  infusion 
of  wormw^ood  sprinkled  on  the  feet  of  the  princess  can 
alone  rid  her  of  his  obsession.^  The  juice  of  a  creeper 
which  encircles  a  banyan  tree  is  said  by  two  talking 
birds  to  have  magical  healing  powers  in  an  Indian 
variant ;  while  among  the  Kirghiz,  animals  tell  how 
two  aspens  give  sight  and  hearing,  how  the  bones  of 
a  dog  raise  the  dead,  and  of  a  place  where  a  lump  of 
gold  is  hid.^  The  two  cycles  of  stories  are  curiously 
combined  in  a  story  from  Kashmir.  A  king  in  mis- 
fortune has  had  his  feet  cut  off  by  another  king,  and 
is  sent  off  with  the  wife  of  the  latter.  They  have  a  son, 
who  one  day  is  lost.  The  king  then  hears  two  birds 
describe  how  he  has  fallen  into  a  well,  and  how,  if  the 
king  jumps  into  this  well,  he  will  recover  his  feet  and 
save  his  son.*    This  is  an  excellent  example  of  the 

^  Variants  of  this  story  will  be  found  as  follows  : — Breton,  Luzel, 
V.B.,  p.  258  ;  Basque,  Cerquand,  i.  51  ;  German,  Proehle,  ii.  No.  i  ; 
Flemish,  Wolf,  No.  4  ;  Tyrol,  Zingerle,  i.  No.  20 ;  Schneller,  Nos.  9, 
10,  II  ;  Tuscany,  Nerucci,  No.  23;  Denmark,  Asbjoemsen,  ii.  166; 
Finland,  Beauvois,  p.  139 ;  Norway,  Dasent,  p.  i  ;  Russia,  Gold- 
schmidt,  p.  61  ;  Wends,  Haupt,  ii.  181  ;  Bohemia,  Waldau,  p.  271  ; 
Roumania,  Ausland,  1857,  p.  1028  ;  Tsiganes,  Miklosisch,  No.  12  ; 
Serbia,  Mijatovich,  p.  80;  Naake,  p.  130;  Greek,  Gamett,  ii.  286; 
Catalonia,  Rondallayre,  \.  68  ;  Portugal,  Coelho,  No.  20. 

2  Scott,  iv.  387. 

3  Tawney,  p.  162.  Radloff,  iii.  343.  Cf.  for  another  Indian 
version,  Ind.  Ant.,  1875  ;  and  for  a  Pamir  variant,  Jour.  As.  Soc, 
Bengal,  xlv.  180. 

^  Knowles,  p.  231, 


70  THE  WATER  OF  LIFE 

way  in  which  separate  incidents  of  different  cycles  are 
found  in  new  combinations. 

Some  examples  from  a  still  lower  stratum  of  folk- 
culture  fall  under  no  story-cycle,  but  show  the  same 
idea  of  magical  powers  in  water.  In  most  of  them 
these  powers  are  given  by  some  supernatural  being- — 
a  point  which  will  be  noticed  later.  Thus  the 
Esthonian  epic  tells  how  the  sweat  from  Kalevipcegs 
forehead  sank  into  the  earth,  and  from  it  arose  a 
healingspring-of  wonderful  virtues,  which  strengthened 
the  weak,  healed  the  sick,  cured  blindness,  and 
bestowed  beauty.^  Glooskap,  the  Micmac  hero- 
divinity,  instructed  a  youth  to  take  some  water  and 
with  it  wash  the  face  of  a  decrepit  old  woman.  ''  And 
as  he  did  so  all  her  wrinkles  vanished,  and  she  became 
young  and  very  beautiful.'"^  A  Dindje  tale  has  some 
features  of  the  Truth  and  Falsehood  cycle.  A  blind 
old  man,  deserted  by  his  wife  and  son,  bewails  his  fate 
by  the  edge  of  the  lake.  There  a  diver  takes  pity  on 
him  and  plunges  him  several  times  into  the  lake, 
restoring  his  sight  by  degrees,  after  which  he  takes 
vengeance  on  his  relations.^  A  Pawnee  hero,  having 
returned  from  the  dead,  finds  his  mother  blind  through 
weeping.  He  tells  her  to  take  a  certain  bowl  of 
water,  put  her  face  in  it,  then  open  her  eyes,  and 
her  sight  will  be  restored.  But  she  must  only  do 
this  after  he  has  gone.  In  Polynesian  legend  Tane 
restored  sight  to  the  old  hag  Kui  the  blind,  by  strik- 
ing her  sightless  eyes  with  two  nuts  from  a  certain 
tree.* 

Still  another  power  of  the  mystic  water  is  to  give 
abnormal  strength,  and  this  aspect  of  it  is  found  in 


1  Kirby,  i.  59.  ^  Leland,  A.L.,  p.  100. 

3  Petitot,  p.  86.  The  story  is  also  current  among  the  Denes,  z'dzd. 
p.  226. 

*  Grinnell,  p.  148.  Cf.  a  Kashmir  story  where  parents  who  have 
wept  themselves  blind  are  cured  by  their  son,  a  holy  man,  placing 
his  hands  on  their  eyes.     Knowles,  pp.  19,  41,     Gill,  p.  112. 


THE  WATER  OF  STRENGTH  71 

several  tales,  which  only  occasionally  fall  into  well- 
defined  groups.  A  Basque  hero,  after  desperate  and 
unsuccessful  fighting  with  a  seven-headed  serpent,  is 
given  a  horse,  dog,  sword,  and  ''a  bottle  of  good 
scented  water"  by  a  grateful  giant.  The  abducted 
princess  throws  this  on  his  face  and  over  his  horse 
and  dog  while  the  fight  is  going  on.  All  obtain  a 
vast  accession  of  strength,  and  the  dragon  is  overcome.^ 
Gol,  the  hero  of  a  Russian  story,  only  pretends  to  be 
strong,  and  insists  on  the  princess  giving  him  the 
''  water  of  heroes  "  to  drink.^  It  inspires  with  strength 
and  knightly  qualities,  which  he  thus  obtains,  and 
slays  her  dragon  captor.  A  variation  of  this  idea  is 
found  in  a  Finnish  story,  where  the  hero,  before  he 
can  move  an  immense  sword,  must  wet  his  head  with 
blood  from  a  tub  standing  in  the  forbidden  room  of 
the  devil's  house.^ 

A  more  skilful  treatment  of  this  theme  occurs  in 
several  tales.  A  story  from  Russia  tells  how  the 
youngest  of  three  sons  was  alone  successful  in  finding 
his  mother,  stolen  away  by  Vikhor,  the  whirlwind. 
She  shows  him  two  tubs  of  water  standing  in  the 
cellar,  and  makes  him  drink  of  one,  until  he  feels  he 
could  give  the  whole  world  a  jolt.  In  the  other  tub 
is  the  Water  of  Weakness,  which  he  puts  in  the  place 
of  the  first.  In  the  fight  which  follows,  Vikhor  drinks 
copiously  out  of  the  wrong  tub  and  is  easily  vanquished 
by  the  prince.*  This  episode  occurs  in  the  Esthonian 
epic.  When  Kalevipceg  descends  to  Hades  three 
maidens  direct  him  to  two  jars,  one  full  of  liquid  white 
as  milk,  the  other  of  liquid  black  as  pitch.  He  dips 
his  hands  in  the  latter  and  his  strength  is  doubled. 
The  maidens  then  displace  two  glasses  of  magic 
liquor,  of  which  one  gives  the  strength  of  ten  oxen, 
the  other  produces  proportionate  weakness.     Sarvik, 

1  Webster,  p.  22.  2  Naake,  p.  28. 

^  S.ja.  r.,  ii.  2.  *  Ralston,  p.  237. 


72  THE  WATER  OF  LIFE 

lord  of  Hades,  drinks  of  the  wrong-  glass,  and  is 
defeated  by  the  hero/  The  two  fluids  are  found  in 
many  Slavonic  stories,  as  where  a  flying-  snake  brings 
two  heroes  to  a  lake  into  which  a  green  bough  is 
thrown.  At  once  it  is  burned  up.  Into  a  second 
lake  they  throw  a  mouldy  log,  which  at  once  puts 
forth  buds  and  blossoms.^  Occasionally  it  is  not 
water,  but  magic  ointment,  which  gives  strength  or 
invulnerability.  Some  Norse  tales  describe  this ;  it 
also  occurs  in  a  Lithuanian  story,  where  strong  Hans, 
a  monster  being-  sent  by  a  witch  to  kill  him,  is  in- 
structed by  an  angel  to  bathe  in  a  certain  brook  and 
then  anoint  his  body  with  an  ointment  which  he  gives 
him.^  The  composition  of  the  unguent  is  not  told,  as 
it  is  in  a  ghastly  legend  from  the  Congo,  where  the 
queen  of  the  Jagas  is  said  to  have  flung  her  infant 
into  a  mortar  and  ground  him  to  pulp,  which  she 
mixed  with  oil,  roots,  and  leaves,  and  anointed  her 
body  therewith,  thus  becoming  invulnerable.  Many 
of  her  subjects  followed  her  example,  and  some  of  the 
ointment  is  said  to  be  still  in  existence.* 

Another  property  of  the  mystic  water  is  to  give 
beauty.  The  Finns  have  several  stories  of  people 
washing  in  a  marvellous  well  and  becoming  beautiful 
beyond  all  description  ;  while  in  a  tale  from  Lapland 
an  ugly  lad  with  a  sore  head  dips  it  in  a  certain  kettle, 
when  his  ugliness  disappears  and  his  hair  is  changed 
to  gold.^  Conversely,  a  story  told  among  the  Passa- 
maquodies  relates  how  the  scrapings  of  the  horn  of  a 
fabulous  monster,  mixed  with  water  and  drunk  by  a 
beautiful  girl,  changed  her  into  an  ugly  old  squaw.  ^ 

.  ^  Kirby,  i.  loo.     Cf.  the  Hindu  legend  of  the  Asura,  who  drank  up 
Indra's  strength.     Muir,  Sanskrit  Texts^  v.  258. 

2  Afanasief,  viii.  205. 

3  Dasent,  pp.  178,  209  ;  Zeit.fiir  Volkskunde^  i.  230. 
*  Reade,  p.  367. 

^  S.ja  r.,  i.43;  Friis,  p.  152. 
^  Leland,  AX.^  p.  327. 


THE  WATER  OF  DEATH  73 

Already  it  has  been  seen  that  a  certain  water  or 
medicine  slays. ^  This  is  the  natural  correlative  in 
primitive  belief  of  a  water  which  gives  life,  but  some 
curious  variations  of  it  occur.  Thus  the  Nereid  of  a 
Greek  story  advises  the  hero  not  to  drink  the  Water 
of  Life  when  he  finds  it,  because  it  kills  the  living ; 
while  in  some  Slavonic  tales  Water  of  Death  as  well 
as  Water  of  Life  must  be  used  to  resuscitate  the 
dead.^  The  former  heals  the  wounds  of  the  dead 
man,  the  latter  brings  back  the  vital  spark,  as  is 
illustrated  by  a  Bohemian  tale.  Irik,  having  been 
sent  by  the  king  to  obtain  Golden  Hair,  is  beheaded 
by  him  on  his  return  because  he  has  broken  a  tabu. 
Golden  Hair  places  head  and  trunk  together  and 
pours  Water  of  Death  over  them.  They  come 
together,  without  trace  of  any  mark.  Then  she 
sprinkles  the  corpse  with  Water  of  Life,  when  Irik 
rises  safe  and  sound.  The  old  king  now  wishes  to 
be  made  young.  Accordingly,  he  is  beheaded  and 
sprinkled  first  with  Water  of  Life,  till  it  is  exhausted. 
Nothing  happens.  Water  of  Death  is  then  used,  but 
though  the  head  joins  the  body  the  king  remains  a 
corpse,  and  Irik  marries  Golden  Hair.^  This  story 
belongs  to  a  wide  group,  in  which  a  king  is  cheated 
and  the  hero  marries  the  maiden  whom  he  has  been 
sent  to  seek.  Mons  Tro,  the  hero  of  a  Danish 
variant,  is  killed  outright  by  the  Water  of  Death,  but 
restored  more  handsome  than  ever  by  the  Water  of 
Life.  This  is  also  done  to  the  king,  but  he  is  not 
satisfied  and  wishes  to  be  handsomer  still.  But  on 
the  second  trial  none  of  the  life-giving  fluid  is  left. 
"Let  what  is  dead  be  dead,"  says  the  princess,  and 
casts  in  her  lot  with   Mons   Tro.*    Finally,  by  the 

^  Vide  the  Lorraine  Impostor  story,  supra. 

2  Gamett,  i.  252.  ^  Naake,  p.  108. 

*  Grundtvig  (MuUey),  p.  17.  In  this,  as  in  the  Bohemian  variant, 
the  waters  have  been  obtained  by  the  hero  himself,  always  through 
the  help  of  ravens.    In  the  Breton  variant  the  hero  is  not  experimented 


74  THE  WATER  OF  LIFE 

recitation  of  various  charms  the  same  water  kills  or 
restores  life,  in  a  story  from  Bengal.  A  hermit  teaches 
a  princess  the  necessary  words  of  the  charm.  Taking; 
some  water  he  repeats  certain  words  over  it,  and 
throws  it  on  a  deer,  which  falls  dead.  Then,  having" 
recited  other  words,  the  deer  rises  to  life  again.  By 
knowledge  of  the  charm,  the  husband  of  the  princess 
and  his  three  friends  kill  some  rakskasas,  who  are 
their  enemies.^  Such  a  story  as  this  is,  however, 
rather  a  reflection  of  the  methods  of  the  sorcerer  and 
medicine-man  all  the  world  over. 

Having  thus  seen  the  various  properties  of  the 
Water  of  Life — resuscitating,  bestowing  immortality, 
healing  wounds  or  blindness,  giving  strength  or 
beauty,  and  having  noted  the  various  groups  of 
folk-tales  to  which-  it  has  given  rise,  it  remains  to 
inquire  into  the  origin  of  such  an  idea  as  this.  We 
must  seek  that  origin  in  primitive  belief  regarding 
water  generally,  whether  as  ocean,  river,  spring,  or 
well.  At  the  primitive  animistic  stage  of  thought, 
water  in  its  various  forms,  like  every  other  thing  in 
the  world,  was  personified  and  believed  to  be  actually 
a  living  creature.  As  far  as  water  is  concerned,  this 
is  the  less  wonderful,  since  being  ever  in  motion, 
sparkling  in  the  sunshine,  murmuring  or  thundering 
along  its  bed,  taking  constantly  its  toll  of  human  life, 
it  may  well  have  seemed  to  be  indeed  a  living  creature. 
This  idea  appears  in  a  fragment  of  ancient  Hebrew 
poetry,  where  the  well  is  addressed  as  a  living  being, 

on,  and  the  king  is  killed  outright  by  the  Water  of  Death — Luzel,  V.B.^ 
p.  148.  The  method  of  killing  the  king  differs  in  other  variants — 
Slav.,  Schiefner,  No.  i  (drowned)  ;  Sicilian,  Gonzenbach,  No.  30, 
and  Spanish,  Caballero,  ii.  27  (consumed  by  a  furnace,  in  which  the 
hero,  anointed  with  a  certain  ointment,  has  been  beautified). 

1  Day,  p.  278.  Cf.  a.  Tamil  story  where  the  mother  of  a  murdered 
child,  by  the  charm  called  Sisupabam,  re-created  the  body,  and  by  the 
incantation  called  Sanjivi  restored  it  to  life.  A  man  whose  love  has 
died,  sees  this  done  and  imitates  it  successfully  with  her  body. 
Oriental  Trans.  Fund's  Miscell.  Trans.,  i.  32,  67. 


WATER  IN  PRIMITIVE  LIFE  76 

while  the  Hebrew  use  of  the  term  ** living  water"  is 
based  on  the  primitive  conception/  With  primitive 
men  personification  was  never  far  removed  from 
deification,  and  especially  among  agricultural  peoples 
it  is  easy  to  see  how  the  fertilising  waters,  working 
such  blessings  to  the  land,  were  conceived  of  as  full 
of  divine  energy,  nay,  as  themselves  divine.  The 
well,  perennially  flowing  when  all  other  waters  were 
dried  up,  may  easily  have  seemed  supernatural  to 
those  who  knew  nothing  of  natural  law.  Moreover, 
the  existence  of  thermal  and  chemical  springs  must 
always  have  suggested  mysterious  powers  to  primitive 
men.  Again,  the  wounds  of  savages  heal  much  more 
quickly  than  those  of  civilised  men.  In  most  cases 
these  wounds  would  be  washed  in  water  to  remove 
dirt  or  blood,  and  to  the  water  the  power  of  healing 
would  then  be  attributed.  To  such  reasons  as  these 
must  be  assigned  the  divine  powers  ascribed  to  river 
or  lake,  but  especially  to  the  sacred  well. 

A  further  reason  is  to  be  found  in  the  invigorat- 
ing effect  of  a  plunge  into  water  after  hard  work  or 
exercise.  Primitive  men  would  soon  find  out  this  for 
themselves,  perhaps  first  of  all  by  following  the 
example  of  many  animals  which  stand  in  water  during 
the  hottest  hours  of  the  day.  The  recuperative  power 
of  a  plunge  into  river  or  lake  or  sea,  to  anyone  tired 
with  the  exertion  of  obtaining  food,  exhausted  by 
heat,  and  covered  with  dust  and  dirt,  must  have  given 
convincing  proof  that  water  had  certain  life-giving  pro- 
perties in  itself,  which  were  easily  imparted  to  beast 
or  man.  Many  savage  tribes  make  considerable  use 
of  the  bath,  and  revel  in  a  plunge  quite  as  much  as 
does  the  modern  Englishman.  But  what  was  good 
for  man  was  good  also  for  his  divinities,  who  had 
the  same  frailties  as  himself.  The  next  step,  there- 
fore,  was  solemnly  to  bathe   image  or  idol  in  the 

^  Numbers  xxi.  17. 


76  THE  WATER  OF  LIFE 

sacred  waters  at  certain  seasons,  but  usually  when 
some  special  act  of  power  was  to  be  asked  of  them. 
By  this  means  their  jaded  energies  were  restored, 
and  a  new  access  of  divine  power  was  bestowed 
on  them.  Savages,  ancient  Germans,  cultured 
Greeks  and  Romans,  Hindus,  and  the  peasantry 
of  Christian  Europe  are  in  the  same  tale  as  far  as 
this  practice  is  concerned.^ 

But  what  thus  gave  strength  or  cured  disease 
could  also  wash  off  defilement  of  all  sorts,  real  or 
imagined.  Hence  among  many  savage  races  the  tak- 
ing off  of  a  tabu  or  the  contagion  of  death  is  accom- 
plished by  washing  or  sprinkling  with  water.^  It  is 
then  but  a  step  to  the  idea  that  the  sacred  stream  will 
remove  the  guilt  of  sin,  and  so  we  find  ancient  Peru- 
vians and  Mexicans,  Greeks  and  Romans,  as  well  as 
modern  Hindus,  resorting  to  this  means  to  be  freed 
from  the  consequences  of  crime. ^ 

The  powers  of  the  sacred  well  or  spring  are  much 
the  same  wherever  found,  and  there  is  no  race  and  no 
country,  nor  indeed  any  age  of  the  world's  history, 
which  has  not  its  wells  innumerable.  These,  the 
abode  of  divinity  or  spirit,  or  hallowed  by  Christian 
saint  (the  legitimate  successor  of  the  pagan  god), 
healed  diseases,  purified  the  unclean,  received  the 
worship  of  their  devotees,  and  gave  oracles  to  the 
trembling  enquirer.     Christian   churches   were  often 

^  See  generally,  Berenger-Feraud,  i.  436  seq.  ;  Tacitus,  Germania^ 
60,  40,  3  ;  Pausanias,  ii.  28,  2  ;  Lucian,  De  Dea  Syria^  47  ;  Ovid, 
Fasti^  iv.  135,  337.  Berenger-Feraud  cites  many  examples  of  bathing 
the  images  of  Christian  saints — an  evident  survival  of  a  pagan 
practice  ;  but  the  purpose  is  rather  to  cause  a  sufficient  rain-fall 
(through  sympathetic  magic),  than  to  give  more  strength  to  the  saint, 
though  this  idea  is  not  lost  sight  of. 

2  The  evidence  for  this  is  too  wide  to  give  separate  authorities,  but 
see  Crawley,  p.  228  ;  Fraser,  Golden  Bough  j  and  Reville,  Rel.  des  non- 
civ,  i.  158  ;  ii.  65. 

2  See  instances  collected  in  my  Comparative  Theology^  pp.  r5i,  252. 
The  use  of  water  in  pagan  forms  of  "  baptism,"  and  initiation  is  also 
treated  of  there,  ch.  xii. 


THE  WELL  BEYOND  THE  WORLD  77 

built  over  an  earlier  pagan  well,  its  waters  being-  made 
to  pass  under  the  altar,  where  they  continued  to 
work  miracles.  Mr  Theodore  Bent  has  given  many 
instances  from  the  Cyclades,  and  a  friend  who  assisted 
at  the  discovery  of  St  Clether  s  chapel  in  Cornwall 
informs  me  that  the  same  method  has  been  in  use 
there. ^  Whether  in  ancient  or  modern  times,  among 
savages  or  partially  civilised  peoples,  there  is  no  limit 
to  the  powers  of  such  wells,  or  to  the  powers  which 
people  believed  them  to  have,  which  is  the  same  thing 
as  far  as  results  are  concerned.  Healing  sore  eyes 
and  curing  lameness  were  two  principal  powers  attri- 
buted to  them  ;  but  they  also  preserved  from  evil  and 
accident,  furnished  a  husband  within  the  year,  gave 
fertility  to  women,  foretold  the  future. 

In  our  folk- tales  with  their  Water  of  Life  from  the 
Well  beyond  the  World,  we  see  the  romantic  side  of 
this  veneration  for  water.  The  primitive  literary 
artist,  like  the  novelist  of  to-day,  worked  with  the 
stock  ideas  and  incidents  of  common  life,  heightened 
them  by  his  imaginative  power,  and  so  produced  the 
folk-tale.  Water,  and  especially  certain  wells  known 
to  him  and  his  audience,  had  well-known  powers  of 
healing,  purifying,  restoring;  so  then,  sometvkerey 
surely,  afar,  there  was  a  miraculous  well  which  could 
restore  life  or  limb,  cure  blindness,  give  strength,  or 
beauty,  or  immortality.  Human  ideals  are  largely 
the  product  of  human  desires,  and  what  a  man  wants 
he  thinks  must  exist  somewhere.  Hence  the  origin  of 
the  Water  of  Life  with  its  marvellous  properties, 
which,  however,  are  only  magnified,  non-natural 
forms  of  such  properties  as  men  firmly  believed  to 
exist  in  the  sacred  wells  known  to  them,  as  an 
examination  of  the  folk-lore  of  such  wells  will  prove. ^ 

^  Bent,  pp.  122,  296,  327, 

2  The  sacred  fountain  near  the  temple  of  Amphiaraus  was  believed 
by  the  Greeks  to  heal  maladies,  but  he  who  drank  of  the  water  died. 
Cf.  this  with  the  Greek  folk-tale  cited  above,  p.  73.     Perhaps  to  such 


78  THE  WATER  OF  LIFE 

The  endeavour  to  obtain  such  water  was  necessarily 
accompanied  by  many  dangfers  and  difficulties  —  a 
point  which  the  tales  cited  have  alluded  to.  The  quest 
might  involve  the  hero's  death,  for  the  Water  lies 
between  two  mountains  which  continually  open  and 
close,  or  it  is  in  the  hands  of  some  supernatural  being, 
or  human  sorcerer,  who  guards  it  jealously.  The 
powers  of  such  Water  would  not  be  minimised  as  the 
story  passed  from  mouth  to  mouth,  and  ever  new 
picturesque  details  would  easily  be  added.  In  the 
cycles  of  folk-tales  with  the  Water  of  Life  incident  we 
see  the  final  stereotyped  form  of  the  Idea,  and  in  the 
less  complete  and  therefore  more  primitive  tales,  the 
material  out  of  which  the  former  grew.^ 

The  religious  use  of  the  folk-tale  incident  occurs  in 
ancient  Babylonian  mythology  and  ritual.  The 
goddess  Ishtar  descended  to  Hades  to  seek  Tammuz, 
untimely  lost,  and  to  give  him  to  drink  of  the  water  of 
life,  which  gushed  up  under  the  throne  of  the  spirits  of 
the  earth,  so  that  he  might  be  brought  back  to  life. 
But  Ishtar  herself  was  stripped  and  bound,  and  in  her 
absence  men  and  beasts  and  earth  languished,  as  they 
did  when  Demeter  sought  Persephone.  The  god  Ea 
then  compelled  the  infernal  goddess  to  let  her  go,  but 
having  passed  into  the  land  of  death  she  had  first  to 
be    sprinkled    with    the  waters  of  life.     The  poem 

an  idea  as  this,  as  well  as  to  primitive  magical  practices,  we  may  trace 
the  notion  of  a  Water  of  Death. 

^  In  several  tales  cited  the  water  is  guarded  by  a  serpent,  or  is 
brought  by  ravens.  Many  races  have  made  the  serpent  the  guardian 
of  the  waters,  for  reasons  to  be  shown  later  (see  p.  407),  but  the  con- 
nection of  the  raven  (mainly  in  Slavonic  and  Northern  tales)  with  the 
Water  of  Life  is  not  obvious.  I  hazard  the  theory  that  the  raven  may 
have  been  the  sacred  bird  of  some  water-divinity.  In  an  ancient 
Greek  tale  from  Apollodorus  {Bibl.  i.  9,  12),  Melampus  assembles  the 
birds,  and  asks  a  remedy  for  his  master's  son,  Iphicles,  whereupon  a 
vulture  indicates  it  to  him.  We  have  also  seen  how  birds  know  the 
secret  of  the  Water  in  the  Truth  and  Falsehood  cycle.  In  some 
Russian  tales  the  Water  is  guarded  by  the  fearful  Baba  Yaga. 


STORY  AND  MYTH  GERMS  79 

embodying-  this  myth  was  sung-  at  the  yearly  Tammuz 
festival,  and  probably  told  also  of  the  restoration  of 
Tammuz  by  the  water.  We  have  here  an  instance  of 
a  folk-belief  being  taken  up  into  a  more  purely 
religious  atmosphere.  Or,  in  other  words,  the  germs 
from  which  the  episodes  of  many  folk-tales  spring,  are 
also  the  germs  which,  in  other  cases,  become  religious 
myths.^ 

^  Jastrow,  op.  cit.^  p.  563.     Cf.  the  Babylonian  myth  cited,  p.  64 
supra. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   RENEWAL  OF   LIFE  IN  THE  DEAD  OR  DISMEMBERED 

The  stories  which  introduce  this  subject  fall  into 
three  groups  : — ( i )  Those  in  which  the  dead  or 
apparently  dead  are  restored  to  life ;  (2)  those  in 
which  the  dismembered  live  again  ;  (3)  those  in  which 
the  dead  live  on  under  other  forms.  All  savages, 
early  and  late,  have  the  utmost  difficulty  in  under- 
standing what  death  is.  They  think  of  it  as  no  more 
than  a  prolonged  sleep  or  trance.  It  was  introduced 
into  the  world  by  accident  or  as  an  afterthought.  It 
is  invariably  unnatural,  and  is  the  result  of  demoniac 
or  magical  influence.  Proof  of  these  beliefs  is  now 
unnecessary ;  on  them,  however,  the  stories  which 
will  be  cited  in  this  chapter  are  based. 

( I )  We  shall  look  first  at  those  which  tell  of  simple 
restoration  to  life.  It  has  already  been  seen  how  this 
frequently  happens  by  means  of  the  Water  of  Life, 
but  various  other  means  are  employed  to  effect  the 
same  purpose.  A  Maori  story  relates  that  when 
Toka  was  drowned,  his  father  dived  down  for  him, 
and  found  his  body  all  cold  in  the  dwelling  of  Tangaroa, 
god  of  the  sea.  After  laying  his  dead  son  carefully 
apart,  he  set  fire  to  Tangaroa  s  house,  then  going 
to  remove  the  body,  ''behold,  he  stood  before  his 
father  full  of  life  once  more."^      In  another    story 

^  Clarke,  p.  113. 

80 


SAVAGE  INSTANCES  81 

from  Samoa,  Tangaloa  grew  jealous  of  his  brother-in- 
law  and  caused  his  people  to  kill  him,  after  which 
they  cast  his  body  into  the  river.  It  floated  to  where 
his  sister  stood ;  she  seized  it,  patted  the  head,  and 
prayed  for  her  brother's  restoration,  when  *'his 
wounds  closed  up  and  healed,  and  the  lad  sat  up."^ 
A  Tasmanian  story  relates  that  two  women  were 
impaled  by  a  sting-  ray  and  died.  Two  black  fellows, 
the  bring-ers  of  fire,  who  are  now  stars,  took  the 
bodies,  laid  them  between  great  fires,  and  having 
collected  many  ants,  placed  them  on  their  breasts. 
"Severely,  intensely  were  they  bitten.  The  women 
revived,  they  lived  once  more,"  and  are  now  the 
companions  of  the  black  fellows  in  the  sky.  There  is 
an  Australian  variant  of  this  story ;  there  the  women 
are  swallowed  by  alligators  and  are  taken  lifeless  from 
the  carcases  of  these  reptiles.^  In  another  Australian 
story  a  confirmed  wife-beater  has  been  drowned  by 
his  two  wives,  and  is  restored  to  life  by  his  mother,  a 
sorceress,  who  places  him  on  an  ant-hill.  Like  Jonas 
Chuzzlewit,  he  pretended  affection  till  such  time  as 
he  could  pay  his  wives  back.  He  induced  them  to 
bathe  in  a  pool  in  which  he  had  placed  two  sharp 
stakes.  They  were  impaled,  but  his  mother  rubbed 
the  bodies  with  her  medicine,  then  placed  them  on 
the  ant-hill,  when  they  gradually  returned  to  life  as 
the  ants  stung  them.  So  Okikurumi,  the  culture-hero 
of  Japan,  is  said  by  the  Ainos  to  have  restored  his 
henchman,  who  was  wounded  to  death  when  out 
fishing.^ 

^  Turner,  p.  85.  This  story  has  affinities  with  those  of  the  Trans- 
formed Brother  cycle  (p.  159).  Here,  as  in  them,  the  children  are 
deserted  by  their  parents.  Tangaloa  marries  the  girl,  and  after  her 
brother's  restoration  they  return  to  their  parents  again. 

2  Ling  Roth,  p.  84.     Parker,  p.  11. 

^  Ibid.^  p.  'J'].  Stinging  with  ants  and  thrashing  with  boughs  are 
resorted  to  by  many  savages  as  a  means  of  driving  out  evil  from  the 
body.  See  Frazer,  i.  153  ;  ii.  233.  Roberston  Smith,  Rel.  of  Semites^ 
appendix.     Chamberlain,  A.F.T.,  p.  30. 


82  THE  RENEWAL  OF  LIFE 

These  stories  may  sug-gest  nothing-  more  than  the 
savage's  inability  to  distinguish  between  unconscious- 
ness induced  by  wounds  or  by  trance,  and  death 
itself,  and  the  undoubtedly  frequent  instances  of  such 
recovery  would  only  strengthen  the  belief  that 
recovery  from  death  was  also  possible,  and  would 
give  rise  to  stories  concerning  it.  Nenpetro,  say  the 
Fjorts,  had  three  wives,  the  Dreamer,  the  Guide,  and 
the  Raiser  of  the  Dead.  One  day,  while  hunting  for 
his  hungry  wives,  he  was  killed  by  an  ox.  The 
Dreamer  dreamt  of  this ;  the  Guide  showed  the 
others  the  way  to  his  body ;  and  the  Raiser  of  the 
Dead,  by  means  of  herbs  and  plants,  restored  him  to 
life.  They  then  began  to  argue.  Who  should  have 
the  honour  of  first  receiving  him  into  her  hut  ?  This 
knotty  question  was  solved  by  their  agreeing  that  it 
should  be  the  one  whose  pot  he  ate  from  first,  and, 
of  course,  this  was  the  Raiser  of  the  Dead.^  The 
common  belief  prevails  that  restoration  to  life  by 
means  of  certain  plants  is  possible,  and,  as  we  have 
seen,  a  common  folk-tale  version  is  that  in  which  a 
hero  is  restored  by  his  friend  or  brother  using  water 
or  a  plant  which  he  has  seen  a  serpent  make  use  of  to 
bring  back  another  serpent  to  life.^    So  in  the  Rama- 

^  Dennett,  p.  83.  A  curious  likeness  to  this  story  is  found  in  a 
Balochi  tale,  of  which  there  are  other  Eastern  variants.  Four  men  keep 
guard  in  succession.  One  makes  a  wooden  image  of  a  woman  ;  the 
second  finds  it  and  dresses  it ;  the  third  decks  it  in  jewels  ;  the  fourth 
prays  to  God  to  give  it  life.  The  image  breathes  and  moves.  In  the 
morning  all  dispute  as  to  the  ownership  of  the  woman  ;  the  king 
decides  that  the  man  who  clothed  her  has  the  best  right,  because  "  it 
is  the  bridegroom  who  gives  clothes  to  the  bride."  "  Balochi  Tales," 
Folk-Lore^  iii.  524. 

2  Wallachian  version,  Schott,  No.  10;  Greek^  Hahn,  ii.  204, 
260;  Germa7i^  Grimm,  No.  16;  Kabyle^  Riviere,  p.  193.  Cf.  the 
old  Greek  story  of  Polyidus,  imprisoned  for  not  being  able  to  restore 
Glaucus  to  life.  In  his  prison  he  killed  a  serpent,  but  saw  another 
serpent  fetch  a  herb  and  apply  it  to  the  dead  one,  when  it  was  restored 
to  life.  With  this  herb  he  revived  Glaucus.  Apollodorus,  iii. 
10.  3. 


THE  TREE  OF  LIFE  83 

yana  Hanuman  restores  his  monkeys  by  means  of 
various  herbs,  one  of  which  cures  wounds,  another 
joins  broken  limbs,  a  third  removes  pain,  a  fourth 
g-ives  back  life  to  the  dead ;  while  a  dead  huma  is 
restored  by  another  bird,  which  places  a  piece  of  grass 
in  its  mouth.  This  is  from  a  Kashmir  story,  but, 
in  the  Hungarian  tale  of  Knight  Rose,  that  hero 
restores  his  brothers  by  means  of  healing  grass  and 
the  water  of  life.  ^ 

A  tree  of  life  or  immortality  occurs  in  many 
mythologies,  Semitic,  Norse,  Malaysian,  Chinese, 
Polynesian.  The  fruit  of  the  Chinese  tree  is  given 
by  fairies  to  their  favourites,  who  then  become 
immortal ;  in  Polynesia  the  dead  assemble  on  a  huge 
tree  with  dead  and  living  branches.  Only  those  who 
tread  on  the  living  branches  come  back  to  life.  The 
Malaysians  think  that  the  mystic  tree  grows  on  the 
summit  of  Mount  Kina  Balu,  and  that  its  fruit 
bestows  immortal  youth. ^  All  such  wonderful  plants 
and  trees  may  be  conceived  of  as  nothing  more  than 
the  imaginative  extensions  of  the  use  of  plants  and 
herbs  and  leaves  of  trees  in  the  medicinal  lore  of  all 
races,  aided,  too,  by  the  universal  custom  of  tree- 
worship.  Many  well-known  plants  had  the  power  of 
healing ;  others  were  more  fabulous  and  their  powers 
were  still  more  mystical,  like  the  Spanish  pito-real, 
which  restored  sight,  or  the  fabulous  Red  Indian 
kikaywek-bisten,  which  cured  all  ills  and  conferred 
length  of  life.  So,  too,  the  Malagasy  believe  in  a 
"medicine  of  life"  which  has  power  to  raise  a  man 
from  death  itself^  Here  as  elsewhere,  the  wish  was 
father  to  the  thought,  and  the  powers  of  such  herbs 
can  be  easily  traced  in  an  ascending  scale,  from  the 

1  Wheeler,   Hist,    of  India,   ii.    368.     Knowles,   p.    12.      Jones, 

p.  57. 

2  Dennys,  p.  97.     Gill,  p.  170.     St  John,  i.  255. 

3  F.LJ.,    i.    295 ;    ii.    98 ;     iv.   3.      Ellis,    Bist.    of  Madag.,   i. 
473- 


84  THE  RENEWAL  OF  LIFE 

known  and  usual  to  the  unknown  and  unusual  and 
mystical. 

Other  tales  reveal  magical  methods  as  the  means 
of  revival.    Thus  a  folk-tale  imbedded  in  the  Ko-ji-ki, 
or   Sacred   Book   of   Japan,   relates  that  when  the 
Deity  Great  Name  Possessor  was  put  to  death  by 
the  jealous  gods,  his  mother  appealed  to  the  heaven 
gods,  who  sent   Princess  Cockle-shell  and   Princess 
Clam  to  help.     The  first  triturated  and  scorched  her 
shell ;  the  second  mixed  it  with  water  and  smeared 
him  with  it,  when  he  recovered  as  a  beautiful  youth. ^ 
In  many  Eskimo  stories  men  are  restored  to  life  when 
magical  charms   are   sung    over    them.      This  also 
occurs  in  American- Indian  tales.     A  Hare-skin  hero, 
who  had  learnt  magic  from  a  giant,  killed  his  parents 
and  then  told  them  to  rise  again,  when  they  became 
living  once  more.     So  two  youths,  killed  by  an  old 
witch,  were  restored  by  their  father,  a  sorcerer,  sleep- 
ing with  them  and  engaging  in  magical  methods.^     In 
one  story  cycle  with  many  variants,  of  which  I  cite  a 
Greek  version  later,  a  hero  obtains  several  magical 
objects,  one  of  which  is  a  flute,  or  guitar,  or  violin, 
which,  when  played,  restores  the  dead  to  life,  thus 
taking  the  place  of  the  magical  charm.     La  Ramee, 
in  the  Lorraine  variant,  went  to  war  with  the  king 
who  refused  him  his  daughter  in  marriage,  and  killed 
all  his  soldiers  with  five  iron  men.     In  the  sequel  the 
conquered  king  relented,  whereupon  La  Ramee  pro- 
duced his  violin,  played  a  jig,  and  the  dead  soldiers 
jumped  up,  replacing  their  hacked-off  heads  and  arms 
on  neck  and  shoulders.^ 

^  Chamberlain,  Ko-ji-ki^  p.  70. 

2  Petitot,  pp.  140,  286.  Dead  animals  are  similarly  restored  in 
Indian  (Temple,  p.  124)  and  Red  Indian  stories  (Petitot,  p.  192),  as  also 
in  mediaeval  legends,  by  the  mystic  power  of  Christian  saints — Thorpe, 
ii.  231  ;  O'Curry,  Manners  of  Ancient  Irish,  iii.  35. 

3  Cf.  p.  216.  Cosquin,  ii.  5,  285.  Flemish,  Wolf,  No.  26  ;  Sicilian, 
Gonzenbach,  No.  45. 


RESTORING  THE  DEAD  85 

Such  stories  illustrate  our  general  thesis  that  the 
primitive  savage  does  not  understand  the  true  nature 
of  death,  and  that  he  does  not  differentiate  between  it 
and  a  state  of  unconsciousness.  On  the  other  hand, 
since  it  is  commonly  believed  that  death  is  either  the 
result  of  demoniac  or  magical  agency,  the  theory 
arises  that  by  magical  agency  the  dead  may  be 
restored.  Those  stories  just  cited  show  the  imagina- 
tive presentation  of  this  theory,  and  in  practice  we 
find  (as  will  be  seen  in  the  next  chapter)  that  the 
medicine-man  is  frequently  called  in  to  capture  the 
wandering  soul  of  the  dying  or  the  dead,  so  that  by 
its  replacement  the  patient  may  revive.  Besides 
having  the  power  of  raising  the  dead,  the  medicine- 
man is  himself  thought  to  have  died  and  come  to  life 
again.  This  presupposition  of  the  possibility  of 
revival  must  have  been  supported  by  the  use  made 
by  medicine-men  of  the  hypnotic  trance.  But  first 
let  us  trace  this  in  some  folk-tales.  From  Kashmir 
we  learn  that  a  dev  taught  his  daughter  how  to  make 
a  man  die  and  then  come  alive  again.  A  wand  was 
to  be  placed  under  his  head  to  rouse  him,  under  his 
his  feet  to  make  him  sleep.  ^  I  have  discussed  in  a 
later  chapter  the  magic  rods  found  by  the  side  of 
sleeping  beauties  in  Eastern  stories,  one  of  which 
causes  death,  the  other  restoration  to  life.^  The 
prolonged  magic  sleep  of  Grimm's  story  of  the  Briar 
Rose  and  its  variants  may  have  its  origin  in  primitive 
uses  of  hypnotism.  In  other  stories  animation  is 
suspended  by  thrusting  a  pin  into  the  head,  by  tying 
a  thread  round,  the  neck,  and,  in  English  and  Celtic 
tales,  a  sleep  thorn  is  employed  for  the  same  purpose.^ 
The  pins,  wands,  etc.,  like  the  passes  of  the  mesmerist, 
need  be  nothing  more  than  the  outward  instruments 
of  what  is  really  due  in  all  cases  to  inward  suggestion. 


1  Knowles,  p.  199.     Cf.  Day,  p.  81.  '^  Cf.^.  205. 

^   Q^.  p.  31.     Yeats,  Secret  Rose^  p.  no. 


86  THE  RENEWAL  OF  LIFE 

Hypnotism,  as  well  as  an  induced  trance  state  with 
''spirit"  utterance,  is,  in  fact,  used  by  savage 
medicine-men  in  America,  New  Zealand,  Sumatra, 
Cambodja,  Annam,  Africa,  and  elsewhere,  as  it  is 
and  was  by  Taoist  and  Egyptian  priests  and 
mediaeval  witches.^  Such  practices  may  easily  have 
given  rise  to  stories  of  resuscitation  after  death,  as  a 
case  cited  by  Mr  Dennett  will  show.  A  Fjort  woman 
is  thought  to  be  a  revenant.  She  ''died" ;  her  lover 
was  accused  of  bewitching  her,  and  at  once  took 
poison.  Meanwhile  she  was  buried,  but  soon  after 
found  herself  the  slave  of  a  white  man  in  Borna.  She 
firmly  believes  that  she  is  a  ghost,  as  do  her  relatives. 
"  I  have  tried  to  convince  her,"  writes  Mr  Dennett, 
"that  the  Nganga  Nkissi,  or  native  doctor,  must 
have  played  her  some  trick,  and  that  she  had  been 
buried  by  him  while  in  a  trance,  or  while  unconscious, 
and  that  he  must  have  taken  her  to  Borna  and  sold 
her  there  to  his  own  profit ;  but  she  would  not  believe 
it."^  Compare  with  this  the  New  Guinea  islanders' 
belief  that  their  priests  can  kill  a  man,  dismember 
him,  and  then  restore  him  to  life  ;  soon  after,  however, 
the  man  dies  suddenly  as  a  result  of  this  drastic 
treatment.  Among  the  Bantu  peoples  of  South 
Africa  it  is  firmly  believed  that  wizards  and  doctors 
can  send  people  into  a  trance,  and  then  torment  or 
mutilate  them  without  their  feeling  any  pain.  One 
young  woman  was  thus  treated,  and  when  she  awoke 
did  not  know  she  had  been  injured  until  she  saw  the 
blood  on  her  body.  Such  stories  are  claimed  by  the 
Reverend  J.  Macdonald  to  have  a  basis  of  truth  and 
to  be  referable  to  actual  hypnotic  powers.  Others, 
again,  suggest  the  natural  exaggeration  of  such 
powers,  and  tell  of  wizards  who  reduce  people's  wills 
to  a  state  of  abject  slavery,  send  men  into  the  forest 


1  Regnault,  La  Sorcellerie^  chap.  i. 
-  Dennett,  p.  ii. 


AN  AUSTRALIAN  MYTH  87 

to  eat  grass,  and  in  other  ways  show  their  mastery 
over  them.^ 

It  should  also  be  noted  that  at  the  initiation  of 
savage  youths  at  puberty — a  rite  which  introduces 
them  to  a  new  life  and  at  which  a  new  name  is 
bestowed  upon  them,  or  during-  initiation  to  the 
tribal  mysteries,  the  lads  are  supposed  to  die  and 
then  come  to  life  again.  In  some  cases  this  is  a 
mere  fagon  de  parler  for  the  initiated,  but  women 
and  the  uninitiate  hold  it  to  be  an  actual  fact,  as,  ^.£*., 
among  the  Wiradthuri  tribes  of  Australia.  The 
rite  itself,  in  this  case,  has  given  rise  to  a  legend,  the 
details  of  which  are  known  only  to  the  initiated. 
Long  ago  there  was  a  being  called  Dhuramoolan, 
intermediary  between  the  divinity  Baiamai  and  his 
people.  It  was  his  duty  to  take  the  boys  of  the 
tribe  into  the  bush  and  initiate  them  into  all  the 
tribal  knowledge  and  duties.  But  when  he  returned 
some  of  the  boys  were  usually  found  missing ;  they 
had  died  of  disease,  said  Dhuramoolan.  It  was  also 
noticed  that  each  boy  had  lost  one  of  his  incisor  teeth. 
Dhuramoolan  had  an  explanation  ready.  He  in- 
formed Baiamai  that  he  always  killed  and  dis- 
membered the  boys,  and  burned  them  to  ashes ; 
out  of  the  ashes  he  formed  new  beings,  each  with  a 
tooth  missing.  But  at  last  the  truth  came  out. 
Dhuramoolan  wrenched  each  boy's  tooth  out  by 
means  of  his  own,  and  while  doing  so  made  a  meal 
off  one  or  two  of  the  lads.  Then  he  forced  the  others 
to  relate  his  own  concocted  story.  As  a  punishment 
Baiamai  killed  him  and  put  his  voice  of  thunder  into  all 
the  trees  of  the  forest.  Out  of  one  of  these  he  made  a 
bull-roarer,  which,  when  swung  round,  had  the  sound 
of  Dhuramoolan's  voice.  This  bull-roarer  he  in-- 
structed  the  old  men  to  use  ever  after  at  the  rite  of 
initiation,  which  was  also  to  include  the  knocking  out 

^  Turner,  Samoa^  p.  348.     Folk-Lore^  iii.  348. 


88  THE  RENEWAL  OF  LIFE 

of  a  tooth,  while  he  forbade  them  to  tell  the  women 
and    the    uninitiated    about    Dhuramoolan's    fraud ; 
hence  these  still  believe  that  the  boys  die  and  come 
alive  again.  ^     Probably  this  is  an  setiologfical  myth, 
i.e.,  one  which  has  arisen  to  explain  a  ceremony  the 
meaning-  of  which  had  been  lost,  but  in  all  such  rites 
it  is  a  curious  thing  that  death  and  restoration  to  life 
invariably  figure.    For  example,  with  some  Negro  and 
American- Indian   tribes  the  youth  is  thrown  into  a 
hypnotic  trance  by  the  medicine-man,  and  is  even 
buried.     On  awaking,  he  has  forgotten  his  old  life.^ 
Sometimes  this  death  and  revival  are  symbolised  by 
a  pantomimic  ritual.     As  followed  by  the  Crees  the 
ritual  consists  of  a  selected  individual  being  surrounded 
by  the  medicine-men,  who  wave  their  manitous  and 
point  invisible  arrows  at  him.     Presently  he  falls  as  if 
dead,  and  one  of  the  sorcerers  makes  hypnotic  passes 
over  him.     After  an    interval  his  breath  gradually 
returns,  and  at  last  he  wakes  up  in  a  stupor,  crying, 
''  Why  have  you  recalled  me  from  the  delightful  spirit- 
land  ?  "    Similar  rites  are  in  use  among  the  natives  of 
New   South  Wales,    Dyaks,   and  others,   while  the 
symbolism  of  passing  from  an  old  life  to  a  new  was 
made    use    of    in    the   ancient    Mexican,    Mithraic, 
Eleusinian,     and     Bacchic     mysteries.^      Symbolic 
dances,    curiously   alike,    in    South    Uist    and    the 
Cyclades  may  be  relics  of  similar  trance  initiations. 
In   South   Uist  a  man   and   a   woman  dance ;    the 

1  J.A.L,  XXV.  297,  R.  H.  Matthews,  The  Burbung  of  the  Wirad- 
thuri  Tribes.  Cf.  Spencer  and  Gillen,  Northern  Tribes,  pp.  343,  347, 
501,  for  a  similar  belief  among  women  and  others  about  the  initiation 
rites  of  these  tribes.  The  noise  of  the  bull-roarer  "  is  made  by  a 
spirit  whom  they  call  Katajalina,  who  lives  in  an  ant-hill  and  comes 
out  and  eats  the  boy  up,  restoring  him  subsequently  to  life." 

2  J,A.I.,  xiii.  472.  Keane,  Man  :  Past  and  Present,  p.  109.  Catlin, 
0-Kee-Pa,  p.  21. 

3  Crees,  Petitot,  p.  477.  Australians,  J.A.I.,  ii.  268  ;  xiii.  432-59. 
Dyaks,  Ling  Roth,  i.  250.  For  the  Mysteries,  see  my  Comparative 
Theology,  p.  248  seq. 


"DEATH  AND  HIS  BROTHER  SLEEP ^^        89 

former  is  armed  with  a  "druidic  wand,"  with  which, 
as  the  dance  goes  on,  he  touches  the  woman's  head, 
whereupon  she  falls  as  if  dead.  He  then  breathes  on 
her  left  hand  and  touches  it  with  the  wand ;  she 
begins  to  move.  The  process  is  repeated  with  her 
right  hand,  when  the  movement  becomes  more 
marked.  Finally,  when  he  has  breathed  into  her 
mouth  and  touched  her  above  the  heart,  she  springs 
up  and  resumes  the  dance  with  him.  In  the  Cyclades 
the  dance  is  symbolic  of  one  believed  to  be  practised 
by  the  Kalkagari,  evil  spirits  of  the  satyr-type.  It  is 
danced  by  two  men,  one  of  whom  passes  repeatedly 
under  the  legs  of  the  other,  while  both  keep  bobbing 
up  and  down.  At  last  one  of  them  falls  dead. 
His  companion  dances  stealthily  round  him,  and 
hops  over  his  legs  and  body.  When  this  has  gone 
on  for  some  time,  he  raises  him  up,  restored  to  life 
and  vigour,  and  both  go  on  dancing  as  before.^ 

The  purpose  of  these  initiation  rites  with  their 
ritual  of  death  and  restoration,  has  been  suggested  by 
Mr  J.  G.  Frazer  to  be  that  "  of  extracting  the  youth's 
soul  to  transfer  it  to  his  totem,"  for  security.  The 
youth  dies,  but  receives  new  life  from  his  totem,  and  is 
thereafter  called  by  its  name.  We  shall  return  to  this 
in  discussing  "The  Separable  Soul";  meanwhile  it 
should  be  noted  how  the  rites  illustrate  the  belief  in 
revival  from  death,  and  show  incidentally  how  that 
belief  received  support  from  the  medicine-man's  powers 
to  induce  and  release  from  the  hypnotic  trance.  The 
savage  easily  confused  Death  and  his  brother  Sleep, 
hypnotic  or  ordinary,  and  to  revive  from  the  one  was 
considered  to  be  as  easy  as  waking  from  the  other. 

(2)  There  are  many  stories — those  especially  in 
which  the  dismembered  are  brought  to  life — which 
cannot  be  explained  by  referring  them  to  the  mystic 

^  Carmichael,  Cartnina  Gadelica,  i.  208.     Bent,  p.  366. 


90  THE  RENEWAL  OF  LIFE 

powers  of  the  medicine-man.  The  first  group  to  be 
considered  contains  many  tales  which  bear  a  certain 
resemblance  to  the  Egyptian  myth  of  Osiris.  Osiris 
was  imprisoned  and  set  afloat  in  a  chest  by  Set  and 
seventy-two  companions.  The  chest  became  im- 
bedded in  a  tree,  which  was  afterwards  used  as  one  of 
the  pillars  of  the  royal  palace.  I  sis,  Osiris's  sister, 
extracted  it  from  the  pillar  and  buried  it.  Set  dis- 
covered it,  and  tearing  open  the  lid  cut  the  body  into 
fourteen  pieces,  and  scattered  them  over  the  land. 
I  sis  searched  for  them  and  discovered  all  but  one  ;  she 
and  Nephthys  placed  them  carefully  together,  and 
Anubis  embalmed  them.  Thus  Osiris  became  the 
first  Egyptian  mummy.  Later  mythology  suggested 
that  Osiris  then  rose  from  the  dead,  as  it  was  hoped 
every  embalmed  mummy  would  one  day  do.  Simi- 
larly Greek  mythology  told  how  Hera,  jealous  of 
Dionysus,  caused  the  Titans  to  tear  him  limb 
from  limb.  Then  his  mother,  Demeter,  pieced 
the  fragments  together  so  that  he  came  to  life 
again.^ 

Some  folk-tales,  from  different  parts  of  the  world, 
bear  a  curious  resemblance  to  the  Osiris  myth ;  the 
nearest  being  a  Roumanian  story.  By  the  treachery 
of  his  mother,  Frounse  Werdye  was  killed  and 
chopped  into  a  thousand  pieces  by  a  dragon.  His 
guardian.  Holy  Mother  Sunday,  collected  the  pieces 
and  gave  them  life,  but  found  that  the  eyes  were 
wanting  because  the  dragon  had  kept  them.  She 
disguised  herself  as  a  musician  and  while  playing 

^  Apollodorus  has  preserved  a  Greek  myth  in  which  Typho  over- 
comes Zeus,  and  cuts  out  his  muscles  with  the  god's  golden  sickle, 
imprisoning  him  in  a  cave.  Hermes  stole  the  muscles  from  their 
dragon  guardian  and  fitted  them  to  Zeus's  body.  He  recovered  and 
destroyed  the  monster.  But  in  a  variant  Cadmus  charms  the 
monster  with  his  music,  and  obtains  the  tendons  as  strings  for  his  lyre, 
restoring  them  to  Zeus.  This  also  is  the  motif  oi\\\^  Roumanian  tale 
which  follows.     Apollodorus,  Bibl.  in  Westermann,  i.  6.  3. 


THE  DISMEMBERED  RESTORED  91 

before  the  dragon  caused  one  of  the  strings  of  her 
violin  to  break.  Then  she  said,  "It  can  only  be 
mended  by  the  eye  of  a  man."  In  this  way  she 
obtained  one  of  the  hero's  eyes,  and  by  the  breaking 
of  a  second  string,  the  other.  Morevna,  the  hero  of  a 
Russian  story,  had  his  wife  stolen  by  Koshchei  the 
Deathless,  who  chopped  him  into  bits,  and  put  them  in 
a  barrel,  which  he  flung-  into  the  sea.  Fortunately  for 
him,  his  brothers-in-law,  the  eagle,  the  falcon,  and  the 
raven,  sought  and  found  the  barrel,  procured  the 
waters  of  life  and  death,  and  caused  his  revival. 
"  What  a  long  time  I've  been  sleeping ! "  he  cried,  when 
he  awoke;  whereupon  they  answered,  ''You'd  have 
gone  on  sleeping  a  good  deal  longer  if  it  hadn't  been 
for  us!"  In  another  Russian  story  a  demon  in  the 
form  of  a  young  blacksmith  changed  an  old  lady  into 
a  young  and  pretty  girl  by  burning  her  in  his  furnace, 
and  then  throwing  the  bones  into  a  tub  of  milk,  from 
which  she  emerged  with  renewed  life  and  youth.  So 
in  the  Finnish  Kalevala  Lemminkainen  was  killed 
and  dismembered  by  a  shepherd  in  the  abode  of  the 
dead ;  his  life-token  (as  in  the  Russian  story)  gave 
warning  of  this  to  his  mother,  who  set  out  to  seek  him. 
After  she  had  asked  many  creatures  where  he  was,  the 
Sun  took  pity  on  her  and  told  her.  She  collected  the 
pieces  together  with  a  rake  from  the  river  of  death ; 
alas,  he  still  remained  dead.  But  a  bee  brought  her 
a  certain  vivifying  balm  "from  the  cellar  of  the 
Creator  "  ;  it  was  applied  to  his  body,  when  he  sprang 
up  crying,  "  How  long  I  have  slept ! "  Compare  with 
these  a  Carib  story  cited  later,  in  which  the  child  of 
the  snake  lover  of  a  woman  is  cut  in  pieces  by  her 
brothers.  She  covered  the  pieces  with  flowers  and 
leaves,  and  like  Rizpah  sat  down  to  watch.  Presently 
from  the  heap  a  head  and  shoulders  and  a  mighty 
human  form  appeared.  It  was  her  child  thus  restored 
to  become  the  ancestor  of  the  Carib  race.  Such  resusci- 
tation's are  also  ascribed  to  the  Algonquin  demon  Lox, 


92  THE  RENEWAL  OF  LIFE 

who  is  "one  of  those  who  rise  from  the  dead."  In 
one  story  two  boys  touch  his  mutilated  body,  when  it 
revives  ;  in  another  ants  collect  the  fragments,  only  to 
be  rewarded  by  being  trampled  to  death  by  the  un- 
grateful Lox  ;  in  a  third  he  is  cast  down  from  the  sky, 
but  singfs  the  charm,  ''  Oh,  spare  my  poor  backbone ! " 
Every  part  of  him  was  scattered,  but  his  backbone 
lay  whole,  and  from  it  came  a  voice  which  summoned 
the  other  members  together,  till  he  stood  up  whole  as 
ever.  In  a  Dindje  tale  a  crow  was  killed  by  the 
Navigator,  who  afterwards  collected  the  bones  and 
restored  it  to  life.  But  one  of  its  members,  a  toe 
(explained  by  M.  Petitot  as  equivalent  to  the  (paWo^ 
— the  missing  member  in  the  Osirian  myth)  was 
wanting,  and  the  crow  had  to  go  without  it.  The 
Pawnees  also  have  stories  in  which  animals  restore 
dismembered  heroes  to  life,  usually  by  magical  means. 
In  one  of  these  they  collected  Pa-hu-ka-tawa's  flesh 
and  bones,  but  could  not  find  his  brains  and  scalp. 
Replacing  these  with  down,  they  passed  their  paws 
over  the  pieces,  danced  and  sang,  till  he  came  to  life 
again.  Yet  as  the  hero  himself  said,  *'Not  as  a 
person  was  I  alive,  but  as  a  spirit."  A  Zuni  tale 
presents  some  interesting  features.  A  woman  who 
has  been  secluded,  but  has  the  sun  for  a  lover,  is  killed 
as  she  is  escaping  from  the  amorous  pursuit  of  some 
youths,  and  gives  birth  to  twins.  When  they  grow 
up  the  sun  tells  them  where  to  find  her  bones,  but 
they  are  not  to  omit  any,  else  she  will  lack  that  part 
when  she  comes  to  life.  An  eye  is  dropped,  with  the 
result  that  she  returns  to  life  with  only  one  eye. 
Later  she  and  her  sons  are  slain,  but  one  of  them 
rises  to  life  again  and  becomes  the  lover  of  a  girl.  He 
becomes  a  skull  at  sunrise,  and  remains  so  till  sunset ; 
but,  persuaded  by  the  girl's  father,  he  preserves  his 
human  shape.  The  copiousness  of  such  stories 
among  the  Red  men  is  easily  explained  by  the  pains 
many  of  the  tribes  take  to  preserve  the  bodies  or 


THE  CRAFT  OF  MEDEA  93 

bones  of  the  dead,  with  a  view  to  their  ultimate 
revival.^ 

The  methods  of  the  sorceress  Medea,  in  what  is 
doubtless  an  old  Greek  M'drchen  or  saga,  to  which  a 
literary  form  has  been  given  by  the  poets,  may  fitly 
be  referred  to  here.  Having^  cast  the  aged  Aeson 
into  a  deep  sleep,  and  having  prepared  her  cauldron 
with  its  mystic  brew,  she  cut  his  throat  and  then 
poured  the  mixture  into  the  wound,  when  he  rose  up 
young  and  blooming.  Then  having  told  this  to  the 
daughters  of  Pelias,  and  having  shown  them  how  an 
old  ram  could  become  a  lamb,  she  persuaded  them  to 
cut  their  father  in  pieces,  and  place  him  in  the 
cauldron.  But  poor  Pelias  remained  dead,  as  Medea 
had  intended  that  he  should.^ 

The  Malagasy  tell  how  Ibonia  went  off  to  seek 
his  ravished  wife,  as  in  the  Russian  tale  of  Morevna. 
He  recovered  her,  but  was  shot  by  her  ravisher.  His 
parents,  warned  by  his  life-token,  mourned  for  him, 
but  his  friends,  more  practical,  collected  the  bones. 
"Joiner  together"  united  them;  "Life-giver" 
breathed  on  them  till  the  flesh  grew  and  life 
returned.  The  Polynesian  god  Tangaroa  was  slain 
by  Maui,  who  later  took  his  decomposed  body, 
put  the  bones  in  a  cocoa-nut  shell  and  shook  them 
vigorously.  Tangaroa  returned  to  life,  but  much 
humbled  by  his  startling  experiences.     In  the  New 

1  Cosquin,  ii.  46.  Ralston,  pp.  59,  91  ;  cf.  p.  235.  Kalevala^  Rune 
XV.  530.  Brett,  p.  64  ;  cf.  p.  2^9  infra.  Leland,  A.L.y  p.  158.  Petitot, 
pp.  36,  153.  Grinnell,  pp.  121,  154.  Gushing,  p.  429.  Brinton, 
Myths  of  New  Worlds  p.  295  seq.  Cf  with  the  Pawnee  story,  a 
Roumanian  tale  in  which  a  bull  restores  to  life  those  who  fed  him,  by 
licking  the  dismembered  body — Roumanian  F.T.,  p.  48.  In  a  Kafir 
story,  when  one  wife  of  a  chief  is  drowned  by  the  jealous  second  wife, 
her  ox  fetches  the  body  out,  and  licks  it  till  life  is  restored— Theal, 
p.  129.  Lox's  backbone  recalls  the  pillar  set  up  in  the  Osirian 
festival,  called  the  "  backbone  of  Osiris."  The  spine  is  held  by  many 
people  to  be  the  seat  of  life. 

2  Ovid,  Metamorphoses,  bk.  vii. 


94  THE  RENEWAL  OF  LIFE 

Zealand  variant  the  g-od  imitates  the  Red  Indian 
Lox,  and  calls  his  own  bones  together,  after  which 
he  pursues  his  undutiful  grandson,  Maui.  Among 
the  tribes  of  Central  Australia  the  same  ideas  are 
found  among  the  traditions  of  their  ancestors' 
wanderings.  While  the  rite  of  circumcision  was 
going  on,  the  last  man  was  mutilated  and  fell  dead. 
His  wives  found  his  body  and  set  forth  to  seek  for 
the  mutilated  organs.  Their  attempts  to  restore 
them  and  their  owner  failed,  and  all  three  were  turned 
to  stone.  But  a  variant  relates  that  after  joining  the 
members  together  the  wives  set  off  to  search  for  food, 
and  on  their  return  found  their  husband,  if  not  eating 
a  bone,  at  least  healed  and  restored.^  We  may  refer 
also  to  the  Bushman  myth  explaining  the  waning  and 
waxing  of  the  moon.  The  moon  is  a  man  whom  the 
sun  gradually  cuts  down  with  his  knife  till  only  a 
small  piece  is  left.  The  moon  implores  him  to 
spare  this  piece,  which  now  grows  and  becomes  a 
complete  moon  again,  when  the  same  process  begins 
de  novo. 

Some  of  these  stories  have  shown  that  the  restora- 
tion is  accomplished  by  magical  means ;  this  appears 
more  clearly  in  others.  A  long  Bengali  tale,  which 
bears  a  curious  resemblance  to  Ezekiel's  vision  of 
the  valley  of  dry  bones,  tells  how  a  prince  and  his 
three  friends  saw  a  hermit  take  up  a  bone  and  repeat 
a  charm  over  it.  Immediately  a  clattering  sound  was 
heard,  and  a  number  of  bones  came  rushing  in  and  lay 
down  beside  the  other.  Over  these  he  said  a  charm  ; 
they  joined  into  a  skeleton.  A  third  charm  clothed 
them  with  flesh,  and  a  fourth  gave  life  to  the  dead 
body.  In  the  sequel  the  four  friends,  by  using  these 
charms,  gave  life  to  a  king,  his  courtiers,  and  subjects, 
whose  bones  alone  had  been  left  by  cannibal  rakshasis. 


1  F.LJ.,  ii.  49.     Cf.  the  Fjort   story   cited  above.      Gill,  p.  68  ; 
Clarke,  43.     Spencer  and  Gillen,  Native  Tribes^  p.  399. 


SAINT  NICHOLAS  95 

Another  prince,  in  a  Kashmir  story,  was  himself  cut 
in  two  by  a  jinn,  but  restored  to  life  by  a  saint,  who 
pressed  the  pieces  together,  and  by  his  mystic  power 
joined  them  and  gave  them  life.  Again,  in  the  Passa- 
maquoddy  story  of  the  Fight  of  the  Witches,  Glooskap 
forced  the  giant  witch  to  tell  where  his  victims' 
bones  were.  These  he  collected,  surrounded  with 
stones,  and  covered  with  wood.  Then  setting  fire  to 
the  wood,  Glooskap  sang  his  magic  songs.  Louder 
and  louder  did  he  sing,  till  strange  noises  came  from 
the  bones.  Then  he  began  his  ''resurrection  song"  ; 
the  bones  joined  with  him  in  singing;  he  sprinkled 
water  over  them,  and  they  came  together  as  living 
beings  once  more.^ 

A  curious  group  of  stories  must  now  be  considered. 
The  motif  oi^  is  a  supernatural  revival  effected  by  a 
divinity  or  saint.  This  is  imitated  by  a  covetous  man, 
who  fails,  and  he  is  about  to  pay  the  penalty  when  the 
saint  appears  and  saves  him.  A  Russian  version 
relates  that  St  Nicholas  travelled  with  a  greedy  priest 
to  a  land  where  the  king's  daughter  was  bewitched, 
and  rich  rewards  were  offered  to  any  who  would  cure 
her.  Pretending  to  be  doctors,  the  friends  were 
admitted,  and,  in  order  to  cure  the  girl,  the  saint  cut 
her  in  pieces,  washed  these  in  a  tub,  breathed  on 
them  till  they  stuck  together,  and,  breathing  again, 
restored  her  to  life.  This  happened  on  two  other 
occasions,  until  the  priest  resolved  to  try  the  experi- 
ment, and  so  gain  the  whole  reward  for  himself  But 
when  he  tried  to  put  the  pieces  together  they  obstin- 
ately remained  apart,  and  he  was  being  hurried 
to  the  gallows  as  a  murderer  when  Nicholas 
appeared,  raised  the  girl  from  death,  and  so  saved 
the  priest.'- 

This  story  has  variants    in    Tuscany,    Brittany, 

^  Day,  p.  261.     Knowles,  p.  70 ;  cf.  Steele  and  Temple,   p.  56. 
F.LJ.,  iv.  6. 

2  Ralston,  p.  351. 


96  THE  RENEWAL  OF  LIFE 

Lorraine,  Suabia,  Austria,  Germany,  Italy,  and 
Norway,  and  it  is  remarkable  that  in  some  versions 
God  the  Father,  or  Christ,  takes  the  place  of  the 
saint.^  But  it  is  possible  that  these  tales  were  first 
told  of  pagan  divinities  or  heroes.  Indeed,  it  is  now 
proved  that  St  Nicholas  was  originally  a  pagan 
divinity,  possibly  Artemis,  or  if  he  actually  existed, 
was  given  many  of  this  divinity's  attributes.^  Of  him  is 
told  the  common  mediaeval  story  of  the  three  young 
men  whom  an  innkeeper  murdered,  cut  in  pieces,  and 
placed  in  a  tub,  intending  to  salt  them  down  as  pork. 
All  this  was  supernaturally  revealed  to  the  saint,  who 
came  and  prayed  over  the  tub  till  the  youths  were 
restored  to  life.  Some  resemblance  to  this  group  of 
tales  may  be  observed  in  a  legend  attached  to  many 
great  names — to  Vergil,  Roger  Bacon,  Albert  the 
Great,  and  Agrippa  of  Nettesheim.  Each  of  these  is 
said  to  have  bidden  his  servant  cut  him  in  pieces,  and 
place  the  pieces  in  a  cask,  over  a  lamp,  for  nine  days 
and  nights.  But  the  king  ordered  the  servant  to 
show  him  what  remained  of  the  great  man,  and  on 
seeing  the  dismembered  body,  he  ran  the  supposed 
murderer  through  with  his  sword,  thus  defeating  all 
possibility  of  restoration.  An  infant's  body  rolled  out 
of  the  cask,  crying  to  the  king,  "Cursed  be  the  day 
when  you  came  here,"  and    then  disappeared.      A 

1  Gubernatis,  Novelle,  No.  31.  Luzel,  Legendes,  i.  30.  Cosquin, 
i.  285.  Meier,  No.  62.  Grimm,  iii.  129.  Crane,  p.  187.  Dasent, 
p.  106. 

2  Prof.  Eugene  Anichkof,  "St  Nicholas  and  hrttrms,"  Folk-Lore^ 
V.  108.  In  mediaeval  art  St  Nicholas  is  depicted  standing  beside 
the  tub  in  which  the  lads  are  shown  with  uplifted  hands.  The 
incident  is  the  subject  of  frescoes  in  churches  at  Winchester, 
Tamworth,  and  Colton.  Another  group  of  tales  may  be  noted  here, 
in  which  an  ugly  suitor  for  a  princess's  hand  is  turned  into  a 
handsome  youth  by  the  devil,  who  cuts  him  up  and  sprinkles  him 
with  the  waters  of  life  and  death.  There  is  a  Russian  version  in 
Ralston,  p.  363.  Such  renovations  are  common  in  Eastern  tales, 
most  usually  by  jumping  into  a  lake.  Cf.  p.  157,  for  transformation 
effected  by  this  means. 


SAINTLY  MIRACLES  97 

different  turn  is  gfiven  to  the  legend  in  the  case  of 
Paracelsus,  whose  servant  was  to  open  the  cask  at  the 
end  of  nine  months.  But  he  opened  it  at  the  end  of 
seven  months,  and  there  was  a  seven-months'  child, 
who  died  on  the  instant.  The  incident  occurs  in  a 
Breton  folk-tale ;  here  a  woman  has  to  let  her  milk 
flow  over  the  dismembered  body,  but  just  before  the 
expiry  of  the  time,  she  falls  asleep,  and  the  hero 
Koadalan  did  not  renew  his  youth  !^ 

One  of  the  commonest  miracles  of  Christian  hagio- 
logry,  as  it  is  of  Mohammedan  and  Buddhist,  is  that 
of  raising-  the  dead  to  life.  Some  of  these  are  con- 
nected with  the  subject  of  this  chapter.  St  Vincent 
Ferrier  took  the  pieces  of  a  child  dismembered  by  its 
insane  mother,  and  bringing  them  together,  restored 
them  to  life  with  the  sign  of  the  cross.  In  earlier 
times  mutilated  saints  were  themselves  restored ;  the 
pagans  cut  off  the  breasts  of  St  Agatha  of  Sicily,  but 
Christ  replaced  them,  as  did  the  Virgin  to  the  right 
hand  of  St  John  Damascene,  while  the  dispersed 
members  of  St  Stanislaus  of  Poland  were  miracu- 
lously reunited.  These  examples  must  suffice  from 
a  large  range  of  legendary  occurrences  which  re- 
count events  precisely  similar  to  those  of  our  folk- 
tales.^ 

We  may  now  glance  at  another  group  of  tales  into 
which  the  incident  of  dismemberment,  with  the  loss 
of  some  important  part  of  the  body  on  revival  (as  in 
the  Osiris  group)  enters.  Here,  as  so  often,  we  have 
the  tasks  imposed  on  the  hero  by  a  giant,  devil,  etc., 

^  Revue  Celtique^  i.  133. 

2  See  the  Martyrologium  Romanum^  passim.  The  story  of  St 
Agatha  will  be  found  under  date  5th  Feb. ;  of  St  John  Damascene, 
6th  May ;  of  St  Vincent,  5th  April ;  of  St  Stanislaus,  7th  May.  For 
Buddhist  and  Mohammedan  instances,  see  Crooke,  i.  318,  etc. ;  ii. 
263  ;  Burton,  Hist,  of  Sindh^  229.  Similar  stories  were  told  of  the 
gods  and  mythical  heroes  by  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  ^sculapius 
and  Apollonius  of  Tyana  were  both  said  to  have  raised  the 
dead. 

G 


9S  THE  RENEWAL  OF  LIFE 

accomplished  with  the  aid  of  the  daughter  of  his 
taskmaster,  but  not  before  she  has  gone  through  a 
terrible  but  necessary  ordeal.  The  Tyrolese  variant 
relates  that  when  the  hero  was  ordered  to  remove  a 
rock  from  a  lake  the  maiden  bade  him  cut  off  her 
head  and  let  all  the  blood  flow  into  a  bucket.  He 
spilt  three  drops  ;  the  girl  disappeared,  but  soon  after 
returned  alive,  though  by  his  carelessness  she  nearly 
failed  in  the  task.^  But  more  usually  the  procedure 
is  somewhat  different.  The  hero  of  a  Basque  story 
has  to  fetch  a  ring  from  the  river ;  the  girl  bids  him 
cut  her  in  pieces  and  throw  them  into  the  river. 
Constrained  to  obey,  he  does  so,  but  part  of  her  little 
finger  sticks  to  a  nail  in  his  shoe,  and  she  lacks  one 
of  her  finger-joints  when  she  reappears  with  the  ring. 
But  the  maimed  finger  later  enables  him  to  identify 
her  among  her  sisters,  who  are  all  like  her.  There  is 
a  Catalan  version,  in  which  the  finger-joint  is  lost 
through  a  drop  of  blood  falling  to  the  ground. 
Campbell  cites  a  Gaelic  variant.  Here  the  king's 
son  is  set  by  the  giant  the  task  of  robbing  a  nest  on 
the  top  of  a  huge  tree,  and  the  giant's  daughter  cuts 
off  and  sticks  her  fingers  (in  a  variant  her  toes)  into 
the  tree  to  make  a  ladder,  but  one  of  them  is  left  at 
the  top  of  the  tree  and  cannot  be  recovered.  The 
Lorraine  version  is  more  typical.  The  hero  is  set  by 
the  devil  to  build  a  castle  with  a  fine  spire.  The 
devil's  daughter  changes  herself  into  a  cat,  after 
which  the  hero  kills  her,  boils  her  and  separates  out 
her  bones,  among  which  he  finds  the  needed  spire. 
Then,  according  to  her  orders,  he  lays  the  bones 
together,  but  misplaces  the  finger-joint,  and  the  girl 
comes  to  life  again. ^ 

The  Osiris  and  Dionysus  myths,  together  with 

1  Schneller,  No.  27. 

2  Webster,  p.  123.  Rondallayre^  i.  41.  Campbell,  i.  31,  52. 
Cosquin,  ii.  11.  A  friendly  insect  often  helps  the  hero  to  select  the 
girl,  see  p.  20. 


OSIRIS  99 

the  yearly  ritual  enactment  of  them,  have  been  classed 
with  those  of  Attis  and  Adonis,  and  with  the  ritual 
of  their  death  and  restoration  celebrated  in  the  mys- 
teries, and  have  been  explained  by  Mr  Frazer  and  Mr 
Grant  Allen  as  symbolising  what  was  once  a  primitive 
custom,  viz.,  the  dismemberment  of  a  human  victim, 
who  was  buried  in  the  cornfields  and  believed  to 
renew  his  life  in  the  harvest  which  resulted  from  this 
magical  fertilising  act.^  But,  in  my  opinion,  the 
basis  of  the  myth  is  found  in  an  earlier  custom, 
besides  being  connected  with  primitive  man's  belief 
that  death  was  only  a  temporary  accident.  That 
custom,  practised  by  the  early  neolithic  people  of 
Egypt,  was  the  dismemberment  of  the  dead  body 
previous  to  its  burial.  The  graves  of  that  period 
show  the  completest  dismemberment,  as  well  as  extra- 
ordinary care  to  preserve  all  the  separate  bones  or 
the  fragments  into  which  they  had  been  broken. 
Whether  this  neolithic  race  was  different  from  the 
people  who  later  mummified  the  body  is  uncertain, 
but  to  the  last  the  earlier  practice  modified  the  later, 
since  in  some  cases  the  (/yaWos  was  mummified 
separately  and  buried  near  the  mummy.  This,  of 
course,  was  the  lost  member  of  Osiris.^  Whatever 
this  custom  of  dismemberment  betokened  I  think  it 
certain  that  it  originated  the  myth  of  a  divinity  who 
had  been  so  dismembered  and  yet  had  risen  again  to 
life.  The  practice  must  thus  have  been  connected 
with  a  belief  in  restoration  to  life,  and  this  belief 
crystallised  into  the  myth  of  Osiris,  to  which,  at  a 
later  date,  the  vegetable  symbolism  and  ritual  were 
added.  Why  dismemberment  should  have  been 
thought  a  necessary  preliminary  to  restoration,  it  is 
impossible  to  say ;  we  know,  however,  that  many 
savages  preserve  the  skull  or  some  of  the  bones  of 

^  Golden  Bough^  i.  305.     G.  Allen,  Evolution  of  the  Idea  of  God,, 
p.  310- 

^  De  Morgan,  Recherches  sur  les  Origines  de  I'Egypte,  ii.  142. 


100  THE  RENEWAL  OF  LIFE 

their  dead  relations  in  order  that  their  souls  may 
always  be  near  them.  The  bones,  as  less  subject  to 
decay  than  the  flesh,  may  have  seemed  to  early  men 
the  basis  of  a  renewed  life.  This  is  perhaps  sug-g-ested 
in  the  Polynesian  and  Passamaquoddy  tales.  That 
the  myth  originated  in  the  custom  of  dismemberment, 
not  in  vegetable  symbolism,  is  confirmed  by  the 
existence  of  similar  folk-tales.  Red  Indian,  Malagasy, 
Australian,  which  have  nothing  to  do  with  such 
symbolism,  and  which  are  told  among  people,  some 
of  whom  dismember,  and  all  of  whom  preserve  the 
bones  of  the  dead.  The  Egyptian  myth  may  have 
originated  some  of  our  folk-tales,  but  wherever  the 
custom  prevailed  such  tales  would  easily  be  invented 
independently. 

Dismemberment  is  accomplished  by  exposing  the 
corpse  till  the  bones  only  are  left,  or  by  temporary 
burial,  or  by  boiling  the  body  and  then  separating  the 
bones,  or  by  removing  the  flesh  piecemeal.  The 
custom  already  existed  in  palaeolithic  times,  as  is 
proved  by  quaternary  interments  at  Mentone  and 
other  parts  of  France,  as  well  as  in  Belgium.  The 
skeleton  was  wrapped  in  skins  and  decorated  with 
shell  ornaments,  the  bones  being  coloured  with  some 
red  pigment.^  This  custom  was  followed  in  Neo- 
lithic times,  not  only  in  Egypt,  but  in  Italy,  France, 
and  England,  as  well  as  in  very  early  places  of 
sepulture  in  the  Cyclades,  where  even  now  the  poor 
dig  up  the  bones  three  years  after  interment,  wash 
them,  and  place  them  in  the  charnel-house.  Among 
savages  the  custom  is  also  met  with  all  over  the 
world,  in  New  Guinea,  the  Philippines,  Melanesia, 
Torres  Straits,  Savage  Island,  the  Andamans,  New 
Zealand,  Patagonia,  and  other  regions  of  South 
America,  and  among  several  North  American  tribes  ; 
while  the  custom  of  exposing  the  corpse  on  "towers 

^  Cartailhac,  La  France  Prehistorique^  p.  99  seq. 


BONES  IN  FOLK-BELIEF  101 

of  silence "  by  the  Parsis,  with  a  later  burial  of  the 
bones,  is  doubtless  a  relic  of  the  practice  of  dismem- 
berment, though  it  is  now  performed  in  accordance 
with  Parsi  laws  of  ceremonial  purity.^ 

With  some  of  these  races,  as  well  as  amongf  the 
Australians,  Tasmanians,  Micronesians,  Dyaks, 
Samoans  (who  embalm  the  body),  and  others,  dis- 
memberment is  performed  in  order  that  the  bones 
may  be  kept  near  the  living,  either  as  a  protective 
charm,  or,  more  usually,  with  the  idea  that  the  soul 
may  re-enter  and  animate  the  dead  bones.  With  the 
Australians,  however,  the  bones  after  being-  carried  for 
a  time,  are  finally  interred  or  placed  in  a  tree.  Pos- 
sibly the  earliest  practice  was  to  dismember  and  pre- 
serve the  bones ;  then,  when  it  became  unnecessary 
to  carry  them  from  place  to  place,  the  custom  of 
dismemberment  was  continued,  but  now  the  bones 
were  buried.  Be  this  as  it  may,  the  custom  is  another 
proof  that,  with  primitive  peoples,  death  is  classed 
together  with  the  phenomena  of  sleep,  swoon,  and 
trance.  Thus  the  Ainos  believe  that  the  ghost  is  still 
active  so  long  as  the  body  is  not  completely  decom- 
posed. This  is  in  agreement  with  the  Eskimo  and 
Red  Indian  belief  that  so  long-  as  any  frag-ment  of  a 
corpse  remains  unburnt,  it  may  by  mag-ic  be  revived, 
as  some  stories  cited  have  already  shown.  ^ 

1  De  Morgan,  op.  cit  Green  well,  British  Barrows^  P-  i?  (English 
Neolithic  Graves).  Cartailhac,  p.  290  seq.  Crooke, /.A./'.j  xxix.  284. 
Bent,  pp.  261,  405.  Tombs  have  been  found  (probably  dating  from 
the  end  of  the  stone  age),  as  at  Oliaros,  too  small  even  for  one  body, 
with  two  skulls  wedged  together,  and  the  bones  of  both  bodies 
huddled  together.  "  In  death  they  were  not  divided ! "  This  un- 
doubtedly points  to  dismemberment  and  removal  of  the  flesh  before 
burial,  in  early  Greece. 

2  Campbell,  ii.  306,  notes  an  incident  in  the  Edda  (Dasent's  trans- 
lation, p.  51),  where  Thor  restores  his  slain  goats  from  their  bones, 
but  one  revived  lame,  because  his  thigh-bone  had  been  broken  for  the 
marrow.  This  is  the  subject  of  a  curious  Saxon  peasant  drama  in 
Transylvania  (E.  Gerard,  i.  182).  C/.  note  on  p.  84,  for  animals 
restored  by  saints.     Many  races  have  believed  that  animals  will  live 


102  THE  RENEWAL  OF  LIFE 

A  similar  belief  is  held  regrarding  vampires — 
vitalised  corpses  which  devour  the  living — both  by  the 
Slavonic  peoples  and  the  Celts.  When  one  is  dis- 
covered and  destroyed,  the  survival  of  the  least  fragf- 
ment  will  restore  the  vampire  again ;  this  is  also 
believed  by  the  Hindus,  Ainos,  and  North  Ameri- 
cans regarding-  the  carcases  of  cannibal  ogres,  while 
among  the  ancient  Scandinavians  a  sure  method  of 
laying  a  ghost  was  to  burn,  impale,  or  behead  the 
corpse.^ 

The  vampire  belief  is  itself  but  a  grisly  extension 
of  what  must  once  have  been  universally  held  con- 
cerning the  dead,  and  of  what  still  survives  even 
where  it  is  thought  that  the  spirit  has  gone  to  another 
world,  viz.,  that  the  dead  man  lives  on  in  the  grave 
w^hich  is  now  his  home — a  belief  which  is  witnessed  to 
by  the  universal  practice  of  feeding  the  dead  with 
sacrifices  and  libations  at  the  grave.  Even  the 
Egyptians,  with  all  their  elaborate  doctrines  of  another 
world,  thought  that  the  mummy  was  somehow  alive, 
while  the  most  philosophic  modern  can  hardly  divest 
himself  of  the  idea  that  the  worn  casket  of  flesh  and 
the  earthy  grave  are  still  the  spirit's  home.  The 
Eskimo  think  that  any  weight  laid  on  the  corpse 
causes  the  dead  man  to  feel  discomfort,  while  the 
Hovas  of  Madagascar,  who  bury  the  dead  in  grottoes, 
change  the  position  of  the  corpse  from  time  to  time, 

again,  e.g.^  Swedish  Lapps  (Klemm,  Cultur-Geschichte^  iii.  83). 
Most  amusing  are  some  Red  Indian  tales  in  which  the  dead  animals, 
about  to  be  cooked  for  supper,  come  alive  again,  and  rush  off  into  the 
forest.     Petitot,  pp.  27,  192. 

I  may  note  here  various  creation  myths,  in  which  the  various  parts 
of  a  dead  monster  are  changed  into  sky,  heavenly  bodies,  earth,  trees, 
animals,  etc.  A7nerican- Indian  instances  in  Petitot,  p.  184;  Ban- 
croft, iii.  94  ;  Hindu  J  Rig-Veda^  x.  90  ;  Scandinavian^  Edda^  caps.  ii. 
iii. ;  Esthonian^  Kirby,  i.  59  ;  Babylonian^  Sayce,  Hibbert  Lectures^ 
ch.  vi. ;  Aino,  Batchelor,  2nd  ed.,  p.  72.  Cf.  the  Orphic  myth  of  the 
soul  of  man  created  from  the  blood  of  the  slain  Dionysus. 

^  See  pp.  25,  130.     Cf.  also  an  Australian  legend  on  p.  130. 


VAMPIRES  103 

lest  it  should  be  fatigued  by  lying-  too  long  in  one 
position.  Thus  the  practice  of  inhumation  did  not 
free  men  from  the  idea  that  the  dead  were  still  alive  ; 
and  a  whole  series  of  folk-tales,  Norse,  Slavonic,  Irish, 
and  Scots,  represent  the  dead  man  coming  in  the 
body  from  the  tomb,  sometimes  devouring  the  living, 
sometimes  talking  and  feasting  with  them.-^  Here  is 
a  Russian  example.  A  peasant,  passing  a  lonely 
churchyard,  was  met  by  a  stranger,  who  begged  to 
be  taken  on  his  cart.  They  entered  a  village;  the 
stranger  bade  the  peasant  draw  up  at  the  last  house. 
Bolts  and  locks  flew  open  before  him,  and  both 
entered  the  dwelling.  On  a  bench  lay  two  sleepers, 
whom  the  stranger  struck  on  the  back.  The  rosy 
blood  began  to  flow  out,  and  with  it  he  filled  a  pail 
and  drank  till  he  could  drink  no  more.  Then  said  he, 
''It  begins  to  grow  light,  let  us  return  to  my  dwell- 
ing." In  a  twinkling  they  were  at  the  churchyard. 
At  that  moment  the  cock  crew,  and  the  vampire  dis- 
appeared just  as  he  was  about  to  drag  the  peasant 
into  the  grave.  The  men  whose  blood  he  had  drunk 
were  found  dead  next  morning.  An  Irish  tale  is 
almost  an  exact  variant  of  this ;  but  in  it  a  girl  has  to 
carry  a  dead  man  on  her  back  from  the  grave  to  a 
house,  where  he  draws  blood  from  three  young  men. 
He  mixes  this  with  oatmeal,  and  gives  the  girl  a  share. 


1  Ralston,  p.  305.  Keightley,  p.  73.  Douglas,  xxi.  Curtin,  p. 
156.  In  the  Finnish  legend  of  Donica  the  dead  girl  remains  alive 
after  death,  because  the  devil  has  taken  possession  of  her  body,  and  a 
magic  charm  is  tied  under  her  arm.  When  this  is  removed  she  falls 
lifeless.  Cf.  Southey's  Legend  of  Donica.  Demons  take  possession  of 
corpses,  think  the  Hindus,  Malays,  and  others,  and  vitalise  them  for 
sinister  purposes.  In  the  belief  of  Servians  and  Bulgarians,  demons 
occupy  the  bodies  of  the  dead,  who  then  become  vampires.  The 
vampire  superstition  is  mainly  found  in  lands  occupied  or  influenced 
by  the  Slavonic  race.  Cf.  Ralston,  op.  cit.j  Garnett,  ii.  168  ;  Bent,  pp. 
44,  74,  299.  It  is  also  found  among  the  Celts  and  Scandinavians, 
while  a  Negro  Voodoo  belief  is  curiously  like  it.  See  Folk-Lore^ 
1894,  p.  297. 


104  THE  RENEWAL  OF  LIFE 

which  she  hides.  Then  she  asks  whether  there  is  any 
cure  for  the  victims.  "None,"  he  replies,  "but  if 
some  of  the  food  had  been  left,  three  bits  of  it  in  the 
mouth  of  each  would  restore  them,  and  they  would 
never  know  of  their  death."  After  she  has  carried 
him  back  and  escaped  by  the  cock's  crowing,  she  is 
able  to  resuscitate  the  youths.  Perhaps  the  early 
connection  of  Slavs  and  Celts,  both  members  of  Mr 
Ripley's  Alpine  race,  in  eastern  Europe,  may  account 
for  this  and  other  parallels,  not  easily  matched  else- 
where, in  their  folk-lore.^ 

The  Scots  examples,  mostly  in  ballad  form,  are 
based  on  a  curious  belief  that  if  the  door  of  the  death- 
chamber  be  left  ajar  the  corpse  will  sit  up  in  bed,  grin 
horribly,  and  even  talk  to  the  living.  Weird  tales  are 
still  told  on  the  Borders  of  watchers  by  the  dead  being- 
stricken  with  terror  by  this  ghastly  revival,  and  of 
how  a  priest  or  a  Presbyterian  minister,  passing  the 
lonely  cottage,  exorcised  the  corpse  till  it  resumed  the 
calm  of  death. ^  In  some  ballads,  like  that  of  Young' 
Benjie,  this  belief  is  utilised,  and  we  learn  how  the 
corpse  of  his  sweetheart,  fair  Marjorie,  "began  to 
thraw,"  and  told  how  he  had  murdered  her  ;  in  others, 
e.g.,  Lady  Anne,  the  dead  child  returns  from  the  grave 
to  reproach  the  mother  who  would  never  own  him  or 
her  own  frailty ;  •  while  in  The  Wife  of  Usher  s  Well 
a  woman  entreats  heaven  to  permit  her  three 
sons,  drowned  at  sea,  to  return — "come  hame  to 
me,  in  earthly  flesh  and  blood."  Her  prayer  is 
answered.  The  young  men  come  back  in  the  body 
on  Martinmas,  they  enjoy  the  feast  prepared  for  them, 
and  a  mother's  heart  is  made  glad.     Then  she  sits  by 

1  Ralston,  Songs  of  the  Russian  People,  p.  411.  Curtin,  p.  156.  In 
a  Tuscan  tale  two  witches  act  in  precisely  the  same  way  as  this  Irish 
vampire,  while  the  victim  is  revived  when  the  sausage,  made  of  his 
own  blood,  touches  his  lips.     Leland,  E.R.R.,  p.  218. 

2  The  story  is  told  of  the  famous  Boston  of  Ettrick,  author  of  The 
Fourfold  State. 


THE  DEAD  RIDER  105 

their  bedside  and  watches  them  through  the  nigfht. 
At  cock-crowing  each  says  to  the  other,  *'  Brother, 
we  must  awa!" 

"  The  cock  doth  craw,  the  day  doth  daw, 
The  channerin'  worm  doth  chide  ; 
Gin  we  be  mist  out  o'  our  place, 
A  sair  pain  we  maun  bide." 

And  with  these  words  they  take  a  last  farewell  of 
the  stricken  woman.  The  weird  pathos  of  such 
ballads,  the  cry  of  souls  pierced  with  more  than 
earthly  grief,  can  only  be  appreciated  by  those  who 
know  the  unwillingness  of  the  southern  Scot  to  dis- 
play outward  emotion.^  With  them  we  may  compare 
a  Pawnee  tale,  in  which  a  dead  mother  returns  to  her 
husband  and  children  at  his  earnest  request.  Here 
the  condition  of  her  return  is  that  no  one  shall  lift  the 
curtain  of  her  sleeping  place  for  four  days.^  Through- 
out West  Africa,  too,  there  is  a  current  belief  in  the 
Uvengwa,  "the  self-resurrected  spirit  and  body  of  a 
dead  human  being,"  with  certain  of  his  bodily  parts 
changed,  e.g.,  the  eye  is  in  the  forehead  and  the  feet 
are  webbed.  It  is  much  feared,  and  is  occasionally 
confounded  with  the  awful  human  Leopard,  thirsting 
for  human  flesh.  ^ 

The  Dead  Rider  ballad  cycle,  known  to  every  one 
through  Burger's  Lenore,  is  connected  with  both  the 
Slavonic  and  Scots  series,  and  is  another  example  of 
this  branch  of  the  subject.  Its  theme  is  that  a  dead 
man  summons  some  one  dearly  loved,  child,  or  lover, 
or  wife,  who  rides  with  him  on  horseback,  ignorant 


^  These  ballads  will  be  found  in  Scott's  Minstrelsy.  See  also 
Douglas,  Scottish  Fairy  Tales,  xxi. 

-  Grinnell,  p.  129.  In  the  sequel  the  wife  disappears  when  another 
of  the  man's  wives  calls  her  a  ghost.  In  another  tale  a  man  would 
have  recovered  his  dead  bride  if  he  had  refrained  from  mentioning  her 
name,  p.  193. 

^  Nassau,  pp.  71,  201. 


106  THE  RENEWAi:  OF  LIFE 

that  he  is  really  dead.  Usually,  as  in  the  Icelandic 
version,  the  livinjgf  rider  is  carried  to  the  churchyard 
and  only  escapes  being-  taken  into  the  dead  man's 
grave  with  great  difficulty.  Such  a  story  exists  even 
among  savages — a  genuine  Araucanian  legend  telling 
how  a  dead  lover  returned  to  demand  his  betrothed 
and  carry  her  off  to  his  grave. ^  While  all  such 
stories  suggest  the  horror  and  fear  which  the  living 
have  for  the  dead,  one  and  all  seem  to  insist  on  that 
firm  belief  of  the  living  even  in  presence  of  the  beloved 
dead — 'Tis  death  is  dead,  not  he  !  In  other  tales,  e.g,, 
those  of  the  Cinderella  cycle  and  in  some  of  the 
Youngest  Son  group,  the  same  belief  is  again  exempli- 
fied ;  the  dead  parent  acts  from  the  grave  and  assists 
the  living.^ 

We  see,  then,  a  great  many  facts  which  point  to 
the  belief  that  the  dead  man  is  not  really  dead,  that 
the  corpse  or  any  part  of  it  may  be  reanimated,  while 
to  a  practice  of  dismembering  the  body,  dating  at 
least  from  late  palaeolithic  times,  we  may  trace  the 
central  incident  of  many  folk- tales  of  this  class. ^  If 
the  dead  lived  again  there  was  no  reason  why  the 
dismembered  corpse  could  not  be  restored  also,  and 
to  some  primitive  theory  of  the  purpose  of  dismember- 
ment now  lost  to  us  we  may  trace  stories  which  told 
how  a  dismembered  corpse  had  been  restored  to  life. 
The  primitive  form  of  the  story  is  doubtless  found  in 
such  examples  as  the  American- Indian,  Carib,  or 
Polynesian  tales.  Other  groups,  more  elaborate,  e.^., 
those  of  the  Covetous   Companion   or    the   Ogre's 

'  Several  versions  exist.  Dozon,  p.  251,  cites  an  Albanian  one; 
for  the  Icelandic,  see  Arnason,  i.  173,  and  for  an  English  variant, 
County  Folk- Lore :  Suffolk,  p.  81.  The  Araucanian  story  is  referred 
to  by  Mr  Keane,  in  his  Man:  Past  and  Present,  citing  Dr  Lenz. 

2  See  pp.  232,  267. 

3  Mr  Romilly  gives  a  case  where  some  esprits  forts  in  New  Guinea 
killed  some  white  men  to  see  if  they  would  bleed  when  speared,  or  if 
they  would  come  alive  again.  Obviously  they  held  the  belief  that 
revival  was  possible,  as  indeed  we  have  already  seen. 


THE  MISSING  MEMBER  107 

Daughter,  must  have  been  based  on  these  by  the 
clever  story-teller  of  a  far-distant  past.  The  raison 
d'etre  of  the  missingf  member  is  dimly  adumbrated 
in  the  Osiris  myth  with  its  North  American  and 
Australian  parallels,  and  is  probably  founded  on  some 
primitive  idea  concerning  the  powers  of  gfeneration, 
still  hidden  from  our  search.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
idea  of  the  missing-  member  may  simply  be  based  on 
the  actual  loss  of  some  of  the  bones  before  interment 
in  the  grave  or  deposition  in  the  ossuary.  In  some 
neolithic  barrows  it  is  found  that  parts  of  the  skeleton 
are  wanting,  and  Canon  Greenwell  suggests  that 
''one  or  more  bones  might  be  lost  in  the  interval 
between  the  removal  of  the  flesh  and  their  final 
burying."^  Such  an  occasional  loss  would  readily  be 
made  to  furnish  a  new  episode  in  stories  of  the 
restoration  of  the  dismembered. 

As  in  the  first  series  of  stories  treated  of  in  this 
chapter,  it  is  quite  likely  that  the  powers  of  the 
magician,  real  or  feigned,  assisted  the  already  exist- 
ing belief  Credible  witnesses  record  the  marvel- 
lous powers  of  Pawnee  medicine-men,  who  make 
the  most  ghastly  wounds  in  their  "subjects,"  and 
then  restore  them  almost  instantaneously,  and  it  is 
certain  that  they  possess  most  marvellous  healing 
powers.  Similar  powers,  real  or  feigned,  are  also 
asserted  of  Mongol  shamans,  one  of  whom  Richard 
Johnson  saw  stab  himself  with  a  sword,  then  make 
the  sword  red  hot  and  pierce  his  body  with  it,  the 
point  protruding  from  his  back,  so  that  Johnson 
could  touch  it ;  while  we  know  that  ancient  Egyptian 
magicians  claimed  to  be  able  to  cut  a  man's  head  off 
and  then  restore  it.  We  have  seen  how  youths  at 
initiation  are  made  to  die  and  live  again ;  but  some- 
times they  are  said  to  be  cut  in  pieces  and  restored,  or 
are  made  to  witness  similar  treatment  of  others,  as  in 

1  Op.  cit.,  p.  1 8. 


108  THE  RENEWAL  OF  LIFE 

Australia,  Ceram,  and  Fiji.  In  these  last  instances 
the  medicine-men  only  make-believe ;  but  in  all  cases, 
whether  pretended  or  real,  it  is  obvious  that  they 
would  get  the  credit  of  such  feats  as  our  stories  bear 
witness  to.^ 

(3)  Another  form  of  early  man's  belief  in  continued 
existence  after  death  is  borne  witness  to  by  other 
groups  of  tales.  The  first  of  these  includes  some  of 
the  Cinderella  cycle,  in  which  the  dead  mother  (who 
sometimes  helps  her  child  from  the  grave  as  already 
noted)  takes  the  form  of  an  animal.  I  have  shown 
in  a  later  chapter  how  the  most  primitive  form  of  the 
story  made  the  actual  animal  the  child's  mother.^ 
But  as  time  went  on  the  story  was  influenced  by  the 
belief  that  men  might  assume  some  other  form  both 
before  and  after  death,  and  hence  the  animal  mother 
was  explained  as  having  been  thus  transformed  either 
at  death  or  before  death  by  means  of  sorcery.  In 
Corsican,  Russian,  Serbian,  and  other  tales  ^  the  cow 
is  expressly  stated  to  be  the  child's  mother  trans- 
formed ;  but  mostly  the  animal  is  introduced  without 
this  explanation,  and  it  is  only  from  its  care  of  the 
child  both  before  and  after  death  that  we  gather 
the  relationship.  The  usual  form  of  the  tale  is  that 
the  girl,  ill-treated  by  her  stepmother,  is  secretly  fed 
by  the  animal.  This  is  discovered,  and  the  step- 
mother orders  it  to  be  killed.  But  before  dying  the 
animal  tells  the  girl  to  bury  its  bones  (or,  in  some 
cases,  Roman,  Chilian,  directs  her  to  look  in  its 
carcase  for  some  magical  object,  which  produces  rich 


1  For  the  Pawnee  evidence,  see  Grinnell,  p.  377  seq.  Mongols^ 
Keane,  Man:  Past  and  Present^  p.  289;  Hakluyt,  p.  317  (1809). 
Egyptians^  Petrie,  i.  28 ;  Budge,  Egyptian  Magic,  pp.  19,  24. 
Australia,  J.A.L,  xiv.  358  ;  xvi.  47.  Ceram,  Frazer,  ii.  354.  Fiji 
J.A.L,  xiv.  22. 

2  See  p.  233. 

2  Ortoli,  p.  81.     Ralston,  p.  260.     Mijatovich,  p.  58. 


CINDERELLA  109 

clothing,  etc.)-^  What  follows  varies  in  different  tales. 
Sometimes  the  girl  gets  food,  riches,  dresses,  or  help 
by  going  to  the  grave  where  the  animal's  bones  are 
buried.  This  occurs  in  the  Scots  tale  of  Rashin 
Coatie,  and  in  Georgian,  Serbian,  and  Kashmir 
variants.  These  stories  are  linked  to  others  where 
help  is  given  from  the  grave  of  a  dead  parent.'^  But  a 
Kabyle  version  connects  both  together.  Here  the 
mother  is  dead  and  buried,  but  the  children  have  a 
favourite  cow  (presumably  the  mother  herself),  and 
when  it  is  ordered  to  be  killed  they  weep  on  the 
grave  of  their  mother,  who  bids  them  bury  its  entrails 
there.  They  do  so,  and  from  the  grave  spring  two 
breasts,  one  of  which  supplies  honey,  the  other 
butter.^ 

In  other  cases,  after  the  animal  or  the  mother  is 
buried  a  tree  springs  from  the  grave  which,  in  turn, 
assists  the  girl  with  advice  and  help,  as  in  Finnish 
and  Russian  versions,  or  in  a  Deccan  story  and  in 
the  Indian  story  of  Punchkin,  feeds  the  children. 
This  is  found  out  by  the  stepmother,  who  cuts  it 
down,  whereupon  milk  flows  from  a  cistern  near  the 
grave.*  More  in  line  with  our  stories  of  dismember- 
ment are  Gaelic  and  Indian  variants.  The  Gaelic 
version  makes  the  sheep  say,  "  They  are  going  to  kill 
me  ;  but  steal  thou  my  skin,  and  gather  my  bones  and 
roll  them  in  my  skin,  and  I  will  come  alive  again." 
And  so  it  happens,  only  the  girl  forgot  to  put 
the  little  hoofs  in,  and  the  sheep  was  lame  when  it 
came  alive.     But  this  did  not  hinder  it  from  helping 


1  Busk,  p.  31.     F.L.J. ,  iii.  31. 

■^  Folk-Lore^  i.  289.  Wardrop,  p.  63.  Mijatovich,  p.  58.  Knowles, 
p.  127.     Cf.  p.  368. 

2  Riviere,  p.  66.  In  an  Esthonian  variant  the  mother  bids  the 
girl  plant  a  tree  on  her  grave.  The  tree  then  gives  her  advice. 
Kirby,  ii.  4. 

*  Schreck,  Finn.  Mdrch.^  ix.  Ralston,  260.  Old  Deccan  Days^ 
p.  I. 


110  THE  RENEWAL  OF  LIFE 

her.  The  bones,  horns,  and  skin  of  the  cow  are 
buried  in  the  Indian  story,  and  afterwards  revive. 
When  the  cow  is  to  be  killed  it  expressly  orders  the 
child  not  to  eat  its  flesh — a  tabu  quite  explainable  on 
the  theory  that  it  is  really  the  child's  mother.^  In  all 
these  stories  we  have  the  animal  acting-  as  the  fairy 
godmother  of  Perrault's  story.  But  the  mother  lives 
ag"ain  as  a  cow,  who,  when  killed,  is  still  active,  or 
actually  comes  alive  again,  or  changes  into  some 
other  form. 

A  group  of  stories  concerning  a  magic  pipe  which, 
when  played,  reveals  a  ghastly  tragedy,  may  be 
illustrated  by  a  Russian  story.  A  peasant  had  three 
daughters,  whom  he  asked  what  he  would  bring  them 
from  the  market.  The  youngest  chose  a  little  silver 
plate  and  a  little  silver  apple.  When  she  obtained 
these,  she  said,  "  Roll,  little  apple,  on  the  silver  plate, 
and  show  me  towns  and  fields,  and  forests  and  seas, 
lofty  mountains  and  beautiful  skies."  The  elder 
sisters,  jealous  of  the  girl  ^m  voit  tant  de  choses,  like 
La  Fontaine's  hero,  and  anxious  to  obtain  her  magic 
mirror,  killed  and  buried  her  beneath  a  birch  tree, 
telling  their  father  that  she  was  lost.  But  soon  after 
a  shepherd  cut  a  branch  from  the  tree  to  make  a  pipe, 
and  as  soon  as  he  had  made  it  the  pipe  said,  *'  I  was 
killed  for  the  sake  of  my  little  silver  plate  and  my 
little  apple."  The  father  accompanied  the  shepherd 
to  the  tree  and  dug  up  his  daughter's  body,  and 
now  the  pipe  said,  ''You  will  not  bring  me  to  life 
again  till  you  fetch  water  from  the  Czar's  well." 
With  this  she  was  restored  to  life;  the  Czar 
married  her;  and  she  freely  forgave  her  unworthy 
sisters.^ 

The  distribution  of  this  story  is  very  wide ;  but  in 
some  variants  the  pipe  is  made  from  a  bone  of  the 

1  Campbell,  ii.  306  (a  curious  instance  of  the  lost  limb.  Cf.  p.  98). 
Calcutta  Review,  li.  121. 

'-*  Naake,  p.  170.     Cf.  an  Esthonian  variant,  Kirby,  ii.  43. 


THE  MAGIC  PIPE  111 

murdered  person  found  protruding"  from  the  grave 
(Tyrol,  Sicily,  Naples,  Spain,  France,  Germany).^ 
Here,  of  course,  the  bone  is  regarded  as  still  animated 
by  the  spirit  of  the  dead,  in  accordance  with  a  wide- 
spread belief  that  the  soul  resides  in  some  particular 
part  of  the  body,  frequently  a  bone.  This  is  believed 
by  the  Maoris,  who  think  the  backbone  especially 
sacred  because  the  soul  is  in  the  spinal  marrow,  and 
by  the  Caribs,  who  take  a  bone  from  a  dead  man's 
grave,  and  preserve  it  carefully  because  the  ghost  is 
able  to  speak  through  it  and  assist  the  owner.  Many 
races,  too,  preserve  the  bones  of  the  dead  in  order 
that  the  ghost  may  never  be  far  away  from  the  living.^ 
But  in  many  other  tales  (Tuscan,  Portuguese,  Spanish, 
Catalan,  Polish,  Transylvanian),  the  pipe  is  not 
merely  made  out  of  reeds  or  a  tree  growing  beside 
the  grave,  but  the  tree  springs  from  the  grave  itself 
(as  in  some  of  the  Cinderella  stories),  and  is,  therefore, 
either  a  reincarnation  of  the  buried  victim  or  the  home 
of  his  spirit.^  In  other  variants  the  victim  is  found  still 
living  when  the  grave  is  opened;  we  have  already 
seen  other  instances  of  this.  Many  versions  of  the 
story  come  from  different  parts  of  Africa  —  the 
Dahoman  variant  is  nearest  the  European.  Here  a 
mushroom  grows  from  the  hero's  grave,  and  is  about 
to  be  plucked  by  his  mother,  when  it  tells  her  how  he 
was  murdered  by  his  brother.*  As  told  among  the 
Yaos  of  East  Africa,  the  story  runs  that  the  brothers 
envied  a  piece  of  cloth  which  could  speak,  and  killed 
their  brother  for  it.  The  cloth  then  identified  itself 
with  him  and  said,  **They  killed  me,  their  youngest 

^  Schneller,  No.  51.  Pitre,  No.  79.  Crane,  p.  40.  Trad.  pop. 
espan.^  i.  196.  Carnoy,  p.  236.  Grimm,  No.  28.  Cf.  the  Scots  ballad 
of  Binnorie^  with  Child's  notes  and  the  variants  cited  by  him,  Eng.  and 
Scott.  Ballads^  i.;  iii.  499  (1886). 

2  Shortland,  p.  107.     Tylor,  P.C.,  ii.  151. 

^  Gubematis,  Novelline^  No.  20.  Coelho,  No.  40.  Caballero,  ii. 
29.     RondallayrCy  i.  33.     Wozcicki,  p.  105.     Haltrich,  No.  42. 

*  Ellis,  Yoruba^  p.  134. 


112  THE  RENEWAL  OF  LIFE 

brother,  because  they  coveted  my  beautiful  cloth."  ^ 
But  the  Basuto,  Zulu,  and  Zanzibar  versions  tell 
how  the  crime  was  discovered  by  a  bird  which, 
after  the  murder,  denounced  the  brothers.  The 
bird  is  a  reincarnation  of  the  victim,^  or  possibly 
the  soul  of  the  deceased,  in  accordance  with  a  wide- 
spread belief  that  the  soul  is  a  bird.  In  one  Basuto 
version  the  heart  tells  the  story ;  it  is  called  a  bird, 
and  in  the  sequel  the  murdered  man  is  restored  to  life  ; 
while  in  another  the  heart  is  a  bird,  and  when  its 
wingfs  are  pulled  off,  the  girl  who  was  killed  steps  out 
of  the  feathers.^  I  shall  refer  to  a  third  Basuto  tale 
here,  as  it  has  some  connection  with  this  group  of 
stories  as  well  as  with  those  of  the  Unnatural  Mother. 
Mosimodi  made  use  of  her  parents'  magfic  pot ;  her  sister 
informed  the  parents,  but  told  her  that  their  mother 
was  not  angry.  As  a  result  of  this  lie  Mosimodi  was 
not  watchful  of  events,  and  was  killed  and  ground  to 
powder  by  her  mother,  who  threw  the  dust  into  a  pool. 
There  a  crocodile  moulded  the  powder  into  Mosimodi's 
form,  and  she  continued  to  live  with  him  beneath  the 
waters.  .  Three  times  her  sister's  water-pot  remained 
fixed  to  the  earth  when* she  went  to  draw  water,  and 
as  often  Mosimodi  appeared  to  her,  singing  the  history 
of  her  experiences,  after  which  she  beat  her  sister  and 
soiled  the  water.  The  third  time  her  father  witnessed 
all,  and  begged  her  to  come  home,  but  she  returned  to 
the  water.  However,  the  crocodile  sent  her  home  after 
she  had  been  ransomed  with  many  cattle,  saying  that 
if  she  was  ill-treated  again  she  must  return  to  him, 
because  he  loved  her.* 

A  third  group  of  stories  is  very  elaborate,  and 

1  Steere, /.^./.,  i.  151. 

2  Casalis,  p.  339.     Callaway,  p.  217.     With  these  stories  should  be 
compared  those  of  the  Unnatural  Mother  cycle,  p.  295. 

^  Jacottet,  pp.  52,  99.     See  p.  129. 

^  Ibid.^  p.  232.     The  Magic  Pot  is  tabu  to  the  children,  like  the 
Bird  that  made  Milk,  see  p.  321. 


THE  TWO  BROTHERS  113 

contains  different  types  of  a  very  ancient  incident, 
which  occurs  in  the  Egyptian  tale  of  the  Two  Brothers 
(see  p.  127).  After  recovering-  his  heart,  Bata  trans- 
formed himself  into  an  Apis  bull,  which  his  unfaithful 
wife  caused  to  be  killed.  Two  drops  of  the  blood  fell 
on  either  side  of  the  door,  and  from  them  grew  up 
two  persea-trees,  which  told  the  woman  they  were 
her  husband.  She  ordered  them  to  be  cut  down,  but 
a  splinter  flew  into  her  mouth  and  caused  her  to  bear 
a  son.  The  son  was  Bata  himself,  who,  when  he 
came  to  the  throne,  put  his  wife-mother  to  death. 
Incidents  almost  identical  are  found  in  various  types 
of  folk- tales ;  possibly  all  have  sprung-  from  this 
Egyptian  version.  It  was  a  doctrine  of  Egyptian 
theology  that  the  g^od  renewed  himself  in  his  son,  as 
Osiris  did  in  Horus,  the  son  being-  simply  the  father 
alive  once  more,  as  appears  in  the  formula  attached 
to  divine  beings,  *' husband  of  his  mother."^ 

In  the  stories  of  the  first  type  there  is  a  faithless 
wife,  or  else  a  female  enemy  of  the  hero  who  changes 
himself  into  a  horse,  which  the  woman  causes  to  be 
killed.  The  blood,  in  a  Russian  variant,  becomes  a 
a  g"oat,  which  is  also  killed ;  from  its  head,  or  from 
the  horse's  blood  in  the  other  variants,  a  tree  springs 
up.  When  this  is  cut  down  the  chips  turn  into  a  fish 
or  duck,  which,  when  it  is  pursued,  jumps  on  shore 
and  takes  the  form  of  the  hero  once  more,  who  then 
metes  out  his  vengeance.  Among  the  variants  of 
this  g-roup  there  are  Russian,  Hungarian,  Lettish, 
Roumanian,  Hessian,  French,  and  Italian.^ 

A  second  type  makes  the  victims  the  children  of  a 
wife  calumniated  by  a  jealous  woman,  who  takes  her 
place.     Trees  spring  from  their  graves ;  the  woman 

^  Records  of  the  Past^  ii.  137.   See  my  Comparative  Theology^  p.  90. 

2  Rambaud,  La  Russie  Epique,  p.  377.  Wolf,  Schoensten  Mdrchen, 
i.  229.  Chodzko,  p.  368.  ' Ausland^  1858,  p.  118.  Wolf,  p.  394. 
Cabinet  des  F^es^  xxxi.  233.  Basile,  No.  49.  It  is  significant  that  in 
the  Russian  variant  the  wife's  name  is  Cleopatra. 

H 


114  THE  RENEWAL  OF  LIFE 

has  them  cut  down  and  made  into  beds.  Duringf  the 
night  one  plank  says,  '*  It  is  the  wicked  stepmother 
who  sleeps  on  me,"  and  the  other  replies,  ''  It  is  our 
dear  father  who  sleeps  on  me."  The  woman  over- 
hears and  burns  the  planks  ;  two  sparks  leap  into  the 
barley  which  a  sheep  is  eating,  and  it  then  gives  birth 
to  two  lambs.  These  are  killed  by  the  stepmother, 
but  their  entrails,  washed  in  the  river,  turn  into  the 
children.  In  a  Russian  variant  the  true  mother  eats 
the  entrails  and  then  gives  birth  to  sons,  who  recount 
the  truth  to  their  father.^ 

In  the  third  type  a  wife  is  killed  by  a  woman,  who 
then  personates  her,  or  by  her  husband  s  second  wife. 
She  becomes  a  fish  (Greek),  flower  (Deccan),  or  bird 
(Annam),  which  is  destroyed  by  the  false  wife.  It 
then  becomes  a  tree,  which  in  the  Greek  variant  is 
cut  down.  From  a  chip  of  the  tree,  or  from  its  fruit 
in  the  other  versions,  a  girl  emerges,  who  takes  the 
form  of  the  murdered  woman.  ^ 

1  Gubernatis,  Z.M.,  i.  412.  There  are  Wallachian  (Schott,  No.  8), 
Serbian  (Mijatovich,  p.  227),  Hungarian  (Gaal  and  Stier,  No.  9), 
Gipsy  (Miklosisch,  p.  277),  Transylvanian  (Haltrich,  No.  i),  Roumanian 
{Ausland^  1858,  118),  and  Indian  (Miss  Stokes,  No.  2),  variants. 

2  Hahn,  No.  49.  Frere,  No.  6.  Landes,  No,  22.  Cf.  an  Indian 
story,  where  a  bamboo  springs  from  the  bones  of  a  girl  killed  and 
eaten  by  her  brothers.  The  girl  comes  nightly  out  of  the  bamboo. 
Folk-Lore,  v.  85,  and  a  Greek  version  of  the  Jealous  Sisters  group, 
p.  359  infra.  Girls  emerge  from  citrons  or  oranges  in  Greek  or  ItaHan 
tales  after  the  hero  has  plucked  and  opened  them — Garnett,  ii.  18  ; 
Crane,  p.  340. 

Many  variants  of  a  story  occur  in  which  a  woman  takes  a  bone  or 
part  of  a  corpse  from  a  grave  and  cooks  it  for  supper,  or  steals  its 
clothes  from  the  grave.  For  some  nights  in  succession  the  dead  man 
comes  and  demands  his  property,  and  at  last  strangles  the  thief,  who 
denies  all  knowledge  of  the  matter.  Venetiafi^  Bernoni,  Tradizioni^ 
p.  125;  German^  Grimm,  iii.  267;  Catalan^  Rondallayre^  ii.  180; 
French^  Blade,  No.  7  ;  Cosquin,  ii.  76  ;  English^  Halliwell,  pp.  25, 
148  ;  Italian^  Crane,  p.  238.  In  Blade's  version  the  ghost  carries  off 
a  child  who  has  eaten  his  leg  for  medicine.  Perhaps  such  tales 
contain  a  survival  of  the  idea  that  killing  and  eating  an  animal  will 
cause  it  to  avenge  itself  on  the  eater.  Hence  savages  frequently 
pray  to  the  animal  to  forgive  them  for  taking  its  life. 


TREE-SPIRITS  115 

Two  widespread  opinions  concerning-  the  dead  are 
combined  in  these  stories.  When  a  tree  or  plant 
springs  from  the  grave  of  the  victim,  or  from  any  part 
of  him,  the  identity  of  tree  and  victim  is  evident.  So 
a  Dyak  told  Low  that  a  bamboo  bush  had  been  a 
man,  whose  ghost  revealed  the  identity  to  his  wife, 
and  that  a  man  who  had  dared  to  cut  off  one  of  its 
branches  had  died.  Offering's  were  made  to  this 
bush.^  Now  Mr  Grant  Allen  has  argued  (and  these 
folk-tales,  though  he  does  not  refer  to  them,  confirm 
his  theory)  that  "whatever  comes  up  on  or  out  of  a 
grave  is  counted  as  representative  of  the  ghost  within 
it."^  The  barrow  or  mound,  carefully  tended,  and  on 
which  sacrifices  were  left  and  libations  of  blood 
poured  out,  became  a  fertile  piece  of  ground,  con- 
spicuous for  wealth  of  vegetation.  Any  tree  growing- 
there  was  assumed  to  be  tenanted  by  the  departed 
spirit,  or  to  be  actually  the  dead  man  himself  living- 
once  more  as  a  tree.^  This  readily  explains  why  the 
tree  so  persistently  appears  in  all  these  various  g-roups 
of  stories  as  identical  with  the  dead  person.  And  it 
is  confirmed  by  the  common  belief  (held  by  English 
peasant  and  Samoan),  that  the  tree  cries  or  bleeds 
when  it  is  cut.  So  the  bushes  which  grew  on  the 
barrow  of  Polydorus  bled  when  ^neas  plucked  them 
up,  like  Dante's  trees  in  the  Inferno.  Actual  instances 
of  the  belief  that  sacred  trees  are  the  dead  transformed, 
or  are  the  habitation  of  the  ghost,  are  found  in 
Australia,  the  Philippine  Islands,  among  the  Damaras, 
and  the  Santals,  who  hold  that  the  good  are  trans- 
formed into  trees  at  death.  ^ 

1  Ling  Roth,  i.  265. 

2  Evolution  of  the  Idea  of  God^  p.  148. 

2  Ibid.^  p. .  147.  Cf  also  Tree- Worship  in  the  same  author's 
edition  of  the  Attis  of  Catullus. 

^  f.A.l.,  1874,  P-  175-  G.  Allen,  p.  140.  Galton,  p.  201.  Crooke,  ii. 
90.  Legend,  myth,  ballad,  and  folk-tale  from  every  European 
country,  as  well  as  from  India,  China,  Polynesia,  Madagascar, 
Guiana,  Australia,  North  America,  etc.,  tell  how  a  tree  or  plant  has 


116  THE  RENEWAL  OF  LIFE 

On    the    other    hand,    when    the    dead    person 
reappears  in  various  animal  forms  in  our  stories,  this 
is  to  be  explained  as  the  reflection  of  another  belief, 
viz.,   that  the  dead  may    reappear    as    an    animal. 
Apart  altogether  from  the  philosophic  or  religious 
doctrine  of  transmigration  held  by  Hindus,  Buddhists, 
Mohammedans,  or  by  ancient  Egyptians,  many  of 
the  lower  races  believe  in  it  as  one  form  of  their  many- 
sided  conception  of  the  future  life.     Sometimes  this 
is  connected  with  totemism,  as  when  it  is  thought  that 
at  death  a  man  assumes  the  form  of  his  clan  totem 
— buffalo,  deer,  snake,  etc.    Or,  as  with  Zulus,  Kafirs, 
and  Dravidian  aborigines,  house-haunting  animals  like 
the  snake  are  firmly  believed  to  be  reincarnations  of 
the  departed.^    Originating,  doubtless,  in  these  ideas, 
the  belief  in  transmigration  into  animals  either  of 
all,   or  of  certain  individuals,  or  of  the  wicked,   is 
found  widely  extended.     Ancestors  reappear  as  deer 
or    cobras    among    the    Dyaks,   as  lizards   in   New 
Zealand,  as  lions  in  East  Africa,  as  fire-flies  in  the 
Solomon  Islands,  as  birds,  lizards,  toads,  crocodiles, 
in  South  America ;  while  Eskimo,  American- Indians, 
and  Polynesians  hold  similar,  though  less  emphatic, 
views. ^    Re-birth  of  a  dead  man  or  woman  in  the 
next    child    born    in    the    village    is    also    held    by 

grown  up  from  a  human  body  or  from  part  of  it,  buried  in  the  ground. 
The  poetical  form  of  the  idea  is  that  of  trees  growing  from  the  graves 
of  two  lovers  — 

"  Out  of  her  breast  there  sprang  a  rose, 
And  out  of  his  a  briar ; 

They  grew  till  they  grew  unto  the  church-top, 
And  there  they  tied  in  a  true  lover's  knot." 

^  See  my  Religion:  Its  Origin  and  Forms ^  pp.  43,  51,  76. 

2  Dyaks^  Boyle,  Borneo,  p.  229;  Brooke,  Sarawak,  i.  151  ;  New 
Zealand,  Angas,  Australia  and  New  Zealand,  ii.  67  ;  East  Africa, 
Livingstone,  Miss.  Trav.,  ii.  160 ;  Solomon  Islands,  Guppy,  S.I,  p. 
54 ;  South  America,  Darwin,  Voy.  of  Beagle,  p.  243  ;  Brett,  p.  75  ; 
Eskimo,  Rink,  p.  36;  Amer.- Indians,  Bancroft,  iii.  521  ;  Polynesians^ 
Gill,  p.  32. 


TRANSMIGRATION  117 

Americans,  north  and  south,  by  Ainos,  Negroes, 
Laplanders,  and  Australians.  Moreover  we  find, 
even  among  the  peasantry  of  Europe,  sporadic 
instances,  survivals  of  earlier  beliefs  akin  to  those 
of  these  primitive  races,  of  the  reappearance  of  the 
dead  in  some  animal  form.^  To  all  such  ideas,  so 
widely  prevalent  and  so  deeply-rooted,  may  be  attri- 
buted the  folk-tale  incident  of  a  man  or  woman  not 
only  being-  transformed  into  an  animal,  but  actually 
reappearing  after  death  as  a  bull  or  cow,  a  horse,  a 
duck,  or  a  fish,  or  being  re-born  of  a  woman  in  some 
extraordinary  way.  The  incidents  are,  in  effect,  the 
simple  and  unexaggerated  reflections  of  actually 
existing  beliefs. 

^  See  Bent,  p.  114;  Leland,  E.R.R.,  p.  178  seq.-,  Cosquin,  ii.  14 
(Spain) ;  Thorpe,  N.M.^  ii.  94 ;  iii.  161  (Germany  and  Sweden) ; 
Choice  Notes,  p.  61  (England). 


CHAPTER  V 

THE   SEPARABLE   SOUL 

In  a  whole  series  of  folk-tales  there  is  found  the  idea 
that  someone's  life,  heart,  or  soul,  may  be  separated 
from  him  for  purposes  of  safety,  and  that  so  long  as  it 
remains  concealed,  its  owner  is  immortal.  This  is, 
as  we  shall  see,  the  reflection  of  a  working  belief  of 
primitive  man  as  of  many  present-day  savages.  It  is 
a  striking  example  of  savage  psychology,  while,  like 
the  conceptions  of  the  Water  of  Life  and  the  Dis- 
membered, it  shows  how  unwilling  early  man  was  to 
believe  himself  mortal.  This  idea  of  the  Separable 
Soul  is  closely  connected  with  another,  that  of  the 
Life-token,  which  occurs  in  scores  of  folk-tales.  The 
Life-token  is  some  object  chosen  by  the  hero,  or 
born  with  him,  or  which  has  been  in  vital  contact 
with  him,  and  which  shows  in  some  unmistakable 
way — withering,  falling,  bleeding,  that  he  is  in  danger. 
The  connecting  link  between  the  Separable  Soul  and 
the  Life-token  is  found  in  tales  where  a  person's  life 
is  wrapped  up  with  the  existence  of  some  object, 
talisman,  animal,  lighted  candle,  etc.  This  idea 
and  that  of  the  Life-token  are,  in  fact,  extensions 
of  the  Separable  Soul  conception,  though  they  may 
also  be  dependent  on  the  belief  in  sympathetic  magic, 
by  which  whatever  is  done  to  a  part  is^equally  done 
to  the  whole  though  separated  from  it,  and  vice  versa, 
I   shall,   however,   give   some  examples  of  these 

X18 


THE  LIFE-TOKEN  119 

kindred    ideas    first,   before   passing-    on    to    stories 
illustrating  the  main  subject  of  this  chapter. 

Since  the  subject  has  been  so  exhaustively  treated 
by  Mr  Hartland  in  his  Le^^end  of  Perseus,  it  seems 
superfluous  to  cite  examples  of  the  Life-token  idea, 
and  I  only  do  so  to  illustrate  the  nature  of  the  belief. 
In  many  of  the  tales  which  belong  to  the  Perseus 
cycle  a  woman,  having  eaten  a  certain  fish,  gives 
birth  to  the  hero  and  his  brothers.  At  the  same  time 
the  fish's  scales  or  bones,  having  been  placed  in  the 
garden,  produce  bushes  which  are  their  life-tokens, 
withering  when  they  are  in  danger.  Or  in  other 
cases  the  life-token  is  the  fish's  blood,  or  one  of  its 
bones  which  sweats  blood ;  but  in  all  'it  is  directly 
connected  with  the  supernatural  birth  of  the  brothers. 
In  what  is  probably  the  more  primitive  form  of  the 
idea,  some  particular  object  chosen  voluntarily  by  the 
hero  gives  warning  of  his  condition.  When  the 
brothers  separate  they  stick  a  knife  into  a  tree,  which 
will  turn  rusty  (German,  Suabian,  Tyrolese,  Lettish)  ; 
or  sweat  blood,  if  harm  happens  to  its  owner 
(Russian) ;  or  the  knife  thrust  daily  into  a  laurel  by 
the  brother  at  home  makes  the  tree  flow  with  blood 
when  the  hero  dies  (Breton).^  This  voluntary  choice 
of  a  life-token  occurs  frequently  outside  the  Perseus 
cycle.  Thus,  in  the  Dancing- Water  cycle  the  seekers 
usually  leave  behind  them  a  life-token — an  apple 
which  "changes "  when  its  owner  is  in  trouble,  or  rots 
when  he  is  dead  (Basque) ;  a  shirt  which  turns  black 
(Greek) ;  a  ring  which  tarnishes  (Sicilian) ;  or  a  knife 
which  is  stained  with  blood  (Arabian).^  A  Mongol 
tale  (of  Indian  origin)  tells  how  six  youths  each 
planted  a  tree  as  they  separated ;  at  the  end  of  a 
certain  time,  the  withering  of  any  of  these  trees  would 
show  that  its  owner  was  suffering.^    The  prince  of  a 

^  For  convenience,  I  give  the  references  in  order  as  they  occur  in 
the  Legend  of  Perseus.     See  i.  17,  67,  56,  42  ;  44  ;  52. 
-  See  p.  59.  •  Busk,  p.  106. 


120  THE  SEPARABLE  SOUL 

Russian  tale  goes  to  seek  his  wife,  carried  off  by 
Koshchei  the  Deathless,  leaving-  with  his  sisters  his 
silver  spoon,  fork,  and  snuff-box,  which  turn  black 
when  he  falls  a  victim  to  the  demon. ^  In  another  of 
the  Koshchei  series  the  connection  of  the  life-token 
with  the  hero  is  still  more  obvious,  for  he  puts  some 
drops  of  his  blood  in  a  glass.  These  turn  black  when 
he  is  about  to  die.^  Such  life- tokens,  as  well  as  many 
others,  occur  in  various  folk-tales ;  their  nature 
differing-  according-  to  the  taste  or  imagination  of  the 
inventor  and  his  audience.  From  a  lower  civilisa- 
tion the  Kafir  story  of  Sikulume  may  be  cited. 
Sikulume  had  left  his  bird  in  the  hut  of  the  cannibals 
from  whom  he  and  his  companions  had  escaped.  He 
determined  to  return  for  it,  and  sticking  his  assegai 
in  the  ground,  said,  '*  If  it  stands  still,  you  will  know 
I  am  safe  ;  if  it  shakes,  you  will  know  I  am  running ; 
if  it  falls  down,  you  will  know  I  am  dead."  Life- 
tokens  are  found  also  in  Basuto  and  Melanesian 
tales.  ^ 

In  such  stories  it  is  not  explicitly  said  that  the 
hero's  life  is  wrapped  up  with  the  life-token,  but  as  the 
next  group  of  tales  shows,  it  is  evident  that  this  is  the 
underlying  idea.  This  is  illustrated  at  a  sufficiently 
remote  period  by  the  classical  stories  of  Meleager 
and  of  the  son  of  Silvia.  At  the  birth  of  Meleag-er 
the  Fates  pointed  to  a  burning-  brand,  and  said  his 
life  would  last  so  long  as  it  was  unconsumed.  His 
mother,  having  extinguished  it,  hid  it  in  a  chest,  but 
one  day,  enraged  at  her  son's  conduct,  she  took  it  out 
and  threw  it  on  the  fire,  when  he  died  in  great  agony.* 
This  is  paralleled  by  the  Roman  story  of  the  son  whom 

1  Ralston,  p.  91.  2  Ralston,  p.  102. 

3  Theal,  p,  Tj.    Jacottet,  pp.  no,  211,  266.     See  p.  282  infra. 

*  Hyginus,  cap.  171,  174.  In  the  mediseval  romance  of  Ogier  the 
Dane,  when  Morgan  le  Fay  releases  him  from  fairyland  to  fight  the 
paynim,  she  gives  him  a  brand  which  is  to  be  preserved  from  burning, 
for  so  long  as  it  is  unconsumed,  so  long  will  his  life  last. 


ROSE-QUEEN  121 

Silvia  had  by  Mars.  The  god  gave  her  a  spear 
with  which  the  child's  fate  was  bound  up.  Years 
after,  he  slew  her  brothers,  and  in  anger  she  burned 
the  spear,  when  the  youth  expired.^  A  modern 
Greek  tale  shows  clearly  that  the  Life-token  has 
something  more  than  an  accidental  connection  with 
its  owners  life.  A  dervish  tells  a  queen,  who  has 
three  sons,  to  plant  as  many  pumpkins,  and  that 
in  their  fruit  will  reside  her  sons'  strength.  The 
eldest  son  turns  ill,  and  it  is  found  that  his  pumpkin 
is  gone.  So  it  happens  to  the  second  son,  but  both 
he  and  his  brother  are  too  weak  to  pursue  the  negro 
who  has  stolen  them.  The  youngest  son  does  so, 
slays  the  negro,  and  recovers  the  fruit,  after  which 
his  brothers  become  strong  again. ^  Similarly,  the 
lives  of  the  Spanish  Rose-queen  and  her  sisters  are 
bound  up  with  three  lighted  candles.  Rose-queen  has 
taken  the  place  of  the  true  queen,  and  caused  her  eyes 
to  be  put  out.  The  queen's  daughter,  guided  by 
St  Joseph,  enters  the  secret  chamber  of  the  enchanted 
castle  where  the  candles  are  kept.  Two  of  these  she 
extinguishes,  and  two  of  the  sisters  fall  dead.  She 
carries  home  the  third,  and  asks  her  father  to  choose 
between  his  true  wife  and  Rose-queen.  He  chooses 
the  former,  and  the  maiden  tells  him  to  blow  out  the 
candle,  causing  the  death  of  Rose-queen.^ 

From  several  Oriental  tales  we  gather  that  a  man's 
life  may  depend  upon  a  talisman  or  necklace  which 
he  wears,  and  in  fact  it  is  "a  common  belief  that 
good  and  bad  fortune,  and  life  itself,  can  be  made  to 
depend  on  its  being  removed  from  the  wearer's  neck."  "* 
Folk-tale  and  actual  belief  in  this  case  coincide,  and 
in  both  we  note  the  influence  of  the  doctrine  of  sym- 
pathetic magic,  that  whatever  has  been  in  contact 
with  a  man  can  influence  his  personality.  A  Kashmir 
tale  relates  that  Panj  Phul  would  not  part  with  her 

^  Plutarch,  Parallela^  p.  26.  -^  Legrand,  p.  191. 

^  F.  L.J.J  ii.  249.  ^  Knowles,  p.  467. 


122  THE  SEPARABLE  SOUL 

necklace,  because  it  contained  the  secret  of  her  life 
and  was  a  charm  against  danger  and  sickness.^  A 
Mongol  Khan  lost  his  life-preserving  talisman,  and 
all  the  soothsayers  of  his  kingdom  could  not  find  it. 
At  last  a  poor  man,  pretending  to  be  a  diviner,  told 
where  it  was,  because  he  had  seen  it  fall  from  the 
Khans  neck.  Another  Khan  was  less  fortunate. 
He  bade  a  poor  wretch  steal  his  talisman,  or  else  he 
would  put  him  to  death.  In  spite  of  all  precautions 
and  guards  this  Eastern  Master  Thief  succeeded,  at 
the  same  time  subjecting  the  guards  to  various 
indignities.  The  Khan,  forgetting  that  the  man  still 
held  his  talisman,  ordered  his  instant  execution,  when 
the  thief  promptly  dashed  it  against  a  stone,  "and, 
behold,  the  blood  poured  out  of  the  nose  of  the  Khan, 
until  he  died."^  The  life  of  an  Indian  prince  is  still 
more  elaborately  secured,  for  it  is  bound  up  with  the 
life  of  a  boal-fish.  In  its  heart  is  a  box,  in  the  box 
a  golden  necklace,  which  is  the  prince's  life.  The 
king's  second  wife  discovered  this  secret,  and  being 
jealous  of  the  boy,  had  the  fish  caught.  That  moment 
Dalim  felt  ill,  and  when  the  necklace  was  removed 
from  the  fish  he  died.  His  body  was  shut  up  in  a 
lonely  palace.  Meanwhile  the  jealous  queen  wore  the 
necklace  by  day  and  put  it  off  at  night,  and  thus  each 
night  Dalim  was  restored  to  life  only  to  die  next 
morning.  A  girl,  of  whom  it  had  been  prophesied 
that  she  would  marry  a  dead  bridegroom,  discovered 
him.  He  fell  in  love  with  her  at  first  sight,  and  said 
he  was  the  dead  bridegroom,  without  explaining  how 
this  could  be.  Next  morning  the  girl  was  naturally 
astonished  to  find  a  dead  man  by  her  side,  and  still 
more  astonished  when,  at  evening,  he  came  back  to 
life.  For  seven  years  this  went  on,  till  Dalim's 
wife,    disguised    as    a    barber,   recovered   the  neck- 

^  Knowles,  p.  467.      A   similar  story  is   told  in  the  Deccan,  cf. 
Old  Deccan  Days. 
■'  Busk,  pp.  55,  133. 


THE  CHURINGA  123 

lace  from  the  jealous  queen,    who  was   then  buried 
alive.  ^ 

Among-  savages  the  idea  is  a  familiar  one.  The 
Cabindas,  an  African  tribe,  bind  a  mirror  round  the 
image  of  their  household  divinities  for  purposes  of 
divination.  Quenquea,  king  of  the  Remba,  had  one 
of  these  mirrors,  and  refused  to  part  with  it,  telling 
Mr  Win  wood  Reade  that  if  the  glass  were  to  break 
he  would  instantly  die.^  Probably  he  would  have 
died,  just  as  the  savage  who  finds  he  has  broken  a 
tabu  dies  out  of  sheer  fright.  With  the  American- 
Indians  the  external  life  idea  takes  various  forms. 
The  Dene  Hare-skins  relate  that  Etwa-eke,  their 
mythical  evil  one,  had  a  stone  hatchet,  armed  with 
which  none  could  overcome  him.  Without  it  he  was 
like  other  men.  At  last  he  was  slain  and  burned, 
when  his  hatchet  came  forth  from  the  ashes  and 
resuscitated  him.  He  was  thus  immortal  so  long  as 
the  hatchet  remained  intact.^  Among  other  races  we 
find,  as  an  actual  working  belief,  that  a  man's  person- 
ality, life,  or  strength  is  bound  up  with  some  external 
object.  Conversely,  among  the  Samoyedes  of  Tomsk, 
each  man  has  an  idol  god  which,  at  the  death  of  its 
worshipper,  is  supposed  to  die  too,  and,  at  all  events, 
is  thrown  into  the  river.*  The  Arunta  of  Central 
Australia  have  a  curious,  though  not  uncommon,  idea 
that  conception  takes  place  independently.  It  occurs, 
they  think,  through  an  ancestral  spirit  entering  into 
a  woman,  so  that  when  a  child  is  born,  he  or  she  is  a 
reincarnation  of  that  spirit.  Now  each  spirit  has  a 
sacred  stone  called  a  churinga,  which  it  drops  on  the 
ground  on  entering  the  woman.  This  churinga,  or 
a  wooden  one  representing  it  when  it  cannot  be  found, 
is  placed  in  the  Ernatalunga  or  cave  of  sacred  things, 

1  Day,  p.  I. 

^  Reade,  Savage  Africa^  p.  542.  Cf.  the  popular  idea  of  ill-luck 
following  the  breaking  of  a  mirror.  ^  Petitot,  p.  218. 

^  Abercromby,  Pre-  and  Proto- Historic  FiiDis^  i.  158. 


124  THE  SEPARABLE  SOUL 

and  only  looked  at  by  its  owner  on  the  most  solemn 
occasions.  It  is  in  fact  more  or  less  bound  up  with 
his  life,  if  it  does  not  contain  his  soul.  Thus  when  a 
man  is  ill  he  sends  for  his  churingfa,  scrapes  a  little  of 
it  off,  mixes  the  powder  with  water,  and  drinks  it. 
The  mixture  strengthens  him,  because  he  absorbs  the 
essence  of  the  stone  endowed  with  his  own  or  rather 
his  spirit-incarnation's  attributes.  If  he  carries  it 
when  fighting-,  he  obtains  courage  and  accuracy  of 
aim,  at  the  same  time  depriving  his  opponent  of  these 
qualities.  If  it  comes  to  grief,  though  the  man  does 
not  die  like  the  Khan  with  his  talisman,  he  expects  ill 
luck ;  while  all  churinga  are  tabu  to  women,  who  are 
not  even  allowed  to  see  their  own.^  Among  the 
people  of  Mota,  Melanesia,  a  lizard,  snake,  or  stone 
is  selected,  and  becomes  a  man's  tamaniM.  The  man's 
life  is  bound  up  with  it  and  with  its  safety  ;  if  it  dies, 
or  gets  broken,  or  lost,  the  man  will  die.  The  choice 
of  a  tamaniu  is  made  by  placing  in  a  heap  the  herbs 
from  which  a  special  drink  has  been  made ;  the  first 
living  thing  seen  in  or  on  the  heap  becomes  the 
tamaniu} 

We  have  seen  how,  in  European  folk- tales,  a  tree 
is  a  common  life-token.  Among  the  Tasmanians  it 
was  usual  to  select  a  tree  as  representing  the  person 
who  chose  it.  It  was  regarded  as  their  inviolable 
property,  at  all  times  to  be  held  sacred.^  The  Ainu 
have  a  similar  custom.  When  a  child  is  born  his 
father  makes  an  ''inao"  out  of  a  willow,  setting  it  up 
in  a  stand  made  of  reeds.  It  is  regarded  as  the  child's 
guardian,  is  implored  to  give  him  long  life,  while  the 
child,  when  grown  up,  worships  it.  The  belief  is  that 
the  life  of  an  Ainu  is  bound  up  with  this  willow,  which 
he  calls  his  "backbone."  A  man  made  one  of  soft 
wood  which  rotted  and  fell  down.  Soon  after,  its 
owner  died.     Hence,  if  an  inao  is  seen  to  be  rotting, 

^  Spencer  and  Gillen,  Native  Tribes^  p.  132  seq. 

■^  Codrington,  p.  251.  ■*  Ling  Roth,  p.  60. 


BIRTH  TREES  125 

it  should  be  carefully  burned  and  a  new  one  set  up. 
As  long-  as  Its  owner  lives,  an  inao  exercises  strong 
influence  over  his  life  and  personal  comfort.^  The 
custom  of  connecting-  the  life  of  a  child  with  that  of  a 
tree  is  found  in  various  parts  of  Africa,  in  the  Pacific 
Islands,  and  in  the  Malay  Archipelago.  With  the 
Papuans  and  the  people  of  Gaboon  and  the  Cameroons, 
if  the  tree  dies  or  is  cut  down  it  is  believed  that  the 
child  will  die.  Elsewhere,  as  in  Sierra  Leone,  Calabar, 
among  the  Maoris  and  the  Dyaks,  misfortune  is  sure 
to  follow  in  such  a  case.  This  custom  must  have 
been  common  among  the  ancestors  of  many  European 
nations,  for  it  is  occasionally  found  as  a  fossil  among 
the  peasantry  in  England,  France,  Germany,  Italy, 
and  Russia.^ 

These  examples,  taken  along-  with  the  actual  use 
made  of  the  custom  in  folk-tales,  show  that  the  Life- 
token  is,  in  reality,  the  life  itself,  through  that  subtle 
bond  of  connection  which  the  pseudo  -  science  of 
primitive  minds  imag-ines  to  exist  between  things 
which  have  once  been  in  contact,  or  which  may 
merely  have  been  linked  together  in  thought.  Hence 
if  an  enemy  g-et  hold  of  a  man's  nail-clippings  or  hair- 
clippings,  or  any  such  unconsidered  trifles,  he  can 
work  him  deadly  harm  through  them.  Possibly  for 
the  same  reason,  a  woman  in  the  Swan  Maiden  g-roup 
of  stories  is  subject  to  her  male  captor  just  so  long 
as  he  can  retain  her  feather  dress. ^    At  all  events  we 

1  Batchelor,  pp.  86,  93,  99,  235. 

2  For  references,  see  Ploss,  Das  Kind^  i.  78  ;  Frazer,  iii.  391-3. 
Reinach,  "  La  Chene  dans  la  Medecine  populaire "  {DAntkropologie, 
iv.  33),  points  out  that  in  various  parts  of  France,  the  sapling  through 
whose  split  trunk  a  rickety  child  is  passed  in  order  to  heal  it,  is  after- 
wards regarded  as  bound  up  with  its  life.  To  cut  it  down  would  place 
the  child's  life  in  peril,  and  render  the  person  who  did  so  liable  to 
take  the  disease  himself. 

3  Cf.  p.  347  infra.  A  large  collection  of  Swan  Maiden  tales  is 
given  by  Hartland,  Science  of  Fairy  TaleSy  ch.  10,  11.  Cf.  Baring- 
Gould,  p.  561  seq. 


126  THE  SEPARABLE  SOUL 

see  some  connection  between  the  hair-clipping  theory 
and  the  Swan  Maiden's  feather  dress  in  a  Micmac 
story,  where  a  man  captures  a  sea  maid  by  obtaining 
her  hair-string-,  which  was  her  charm  or  life,  and 
without  which  she  could  not  live.^ 

By  a  natural  transition  we  are  now  led  on  to  a 
group  of  tales  belonging-  to  this  cycle,  in  which  the 
hair  plays  an  important  part  as  the  seat  of  life  or 
strength.  The  classical  story  of  Nisus,  king  of 
Megara,  tells  how  his  fate  was  bound  up  with  a 
purple  hair  in  his  head.  His  daughter,  the  lover  of 
Minos  of  Crete,  his  enemy,  cut  the  hair  out  while  her 
father  slept,  so  that  he  fell  an  easy  victim  in  the  next 
fight.  Equally  treacherous  was  Comoetho,  daughter 
of  Pterelaus,  to  whom  Poseidon  had  given  a  golden 
hair  which  made  him  immortal.^  These  classical 
legends  are  repeated  in  the  folk-tales  of  modern 
Greece.  To  take  one  example  out  of  many,  a  hero 
has  overcome  the  Turkish  Agha,  but  cannot  kill  him. 
His  friend  the  stork  knows  the  reason  why,  and 
proceeds  to  pull  a  white  hair  out  of  the  magician's 
black  head-covering.  On  this  hair  depended  his  life, 
and  he  immediately  expired.^  A  curious  turn  is  given 
to  the  idea  in  a  Servian  story,  where  a  red  hair  cut  by 
a  peasant  from  a  girl's  head  is  sold  to  the  king,  and 
reveals  "the  story  of  many  marvellous  secrets  of 
nature,  and  of  things  that  had  happened  since  the 
creation  of  the  world."*  This  red  hair  is  evidently 
at  bottom  the  life-hair,  but  has  become  a  kind  of 
magic  mirror.  Hair  as  a  life-token  is  found  among  the 
Eskimo.  Kujanguak  is  in  great  danger,  but  finally 
escapes.  Meanwhile,  his  mother  has  missed  a  lock 
of  hair,  which  is  of  bad  omen  for  her  son.  Soon  after 
it  appears  again  in  its  proper  place  on  her  forehead, 

1  Leland,  p.  282.     For  other  uses  of  the  hair-string,  especially  in 
Australia,  see  Crawley,  p.  108. 

2  Hyginus,  cap.  198.     Apollodorus,  ii.  4  seq. 

'^  Garnett,  ii.  I75-  ^  Naake,  p.  41. 


THE  TWO  BROTHERS  127 

and  she  now  knows  that  he  is  safe.^  A  story  from 
Sumatra  is  so  like  the  Greek  variant  as  to  make  one 
ask  whether  it  is  original.  A  Nias  chief  was  captured 
by  his  enemies,  who  found  they  could  not  kill  him. 
But  his  wife  informed  them  that  his  life  was  bound 
up  with  a  hair  on  his  head  as  hard  as  copper  wire. 
His  death  followed  as  soon  as  this  hair  was  plucked 
out.^  The  hair  incident  in  the  Hebrew  story  of 
Samson  and  Delilah  may  be  compared,  and  it  is 
paralleled  by  one  of  Hahn's  Greek  tales,  where  a 
man's  mother  pulls  out  three  golden  hairs  in  which 
his  strength  lies.  He  becomes  as  weak  as  water, 
and  falls  an  easy  victim  to  his  enemies.^ 

I  now  proceed  to  cite  various  tales  in  which,  so  to 
speak,  we  see  the  process  of  hiding  one's  life  at  work. 
The  classical  instance  is,  of  course,  the  ancient 
Egyptian  story  of  the  Two  Brothers,  which  contains 
both  the  incident  of  the  Life-token  and  that  of  the 
Separable  Soul.  It  is  found  in  a  papyrus  of  the 
fourteenth  century  B.C.,  but  in  whole  or  in  part  is 
probably  of  much  older  date.  Bata,  having  been 
unjustly  accused,  like  Joseph,  by  his  brother  Anpu's 
wife,  fled  when  Anpu  sought  his  life.  He  was  able  to 
vindicate  his  innocence,  but  to  protect  himself  the 
better,  he  took  his  heart  out  of  his  body  and  hid  it  in 
the  flower  of  an  acacia-tree,  so  that  it  could  only  fall  if 
the  tree  were  cut  down.  He  told  Anpu  that  if  this 
happened  he  must  come  in  search  of  his  heart  and 
seek  it,  even  if  it  were  for  seven  years.  His  death 
would  be  revealed  to  Anpu  by  the  beer  in  his  vessel 
at  home  beginning  to  boil.  They  now  took  leave  of 
each  other,  and  a  wife  having  been  made  for  Bata  by 
the  god  Noum,  he  told  her  the  secret  of  his  life.     A 

^  Rink,  p.  44.  The  Eskimo  believe  that  things  belonging  to  the 
absent  can,  by  certain  signs,  announce  their  death  or  danger. 

^  Frazer,  iii.  386,  quoting  Allge?neine  Missions — Zeitschrift^  xi.  453. 

3  Hahn,  i.  217.  Cf.  many  tales  in  which  a  girPs  hair  floating  down 
a  stream  and  found  by  a  man  causes  him  to  fall  in  love  with  her. 


128  THE  SEPARABLE  SOUL 

lock  of  her  hair  was  carried  down  the  river  and  taken 
to  the  Pharaoh,  who  bade  search  to  be  made  for  its 
owner.  She  was  found,  and  became  the  Pharaoh's 
wife,  advising-  him  to  cut  down  the  acacia  tree,  thus 
causing  Data's  death.  This  was  done ;  the  beer 
began  to  boil ;  and  Anpu  set  out  on  the  quest  of 
Bata's  heart.  For  three  years  he  sought  it,  and 
then,  as  Bata  had  directed  him,  placed  it  in  water. 
As  it  absorbed  the  water  the  mummy  of  Bata  trembled 
and  looked  at  Anpu.  Then  he  gave  Bata  the 
water  to  drink.  With  it  he  swallowed  his  heart,  and 
became  as  he  had  been  before.^ 

The  incident  of  the  separable  heart  need  not  have 
been  borrowed  by  the  early  Egyptians,  but  may  have 
originated  with  them  independently.  The  heart, 
rather  than  the  soul  or  life  is  mentioned,  because  in 
Egyptian  belief,  the  heart  was  the  fountain  of  the 
blood,  and  therefore  the  life.  For  this  reason  the 
heart,  removed  from  the  corpse  in  the  process  of 
mummification,  was  replaced  by  an  artificial  one, 
which,  however,  was  liable  to  be  carried  off  by  a  half- 
human,  half-bestial  monster  called  the  Destroyer  of 
Hearts.^    A  Hottentot  story,  in  which  the  treatment 

1  Bata  was  subsequently  changed  into  an  Apis  bull,  then  into  two 
persea-trees,  a  splinter  of  which  fell  into  the  mouth  of  his  wife,  of 
whom  he  was  reborn,  p.  113  supra.  Mr  Flinders-Petrie  thinks  an 
earlier  Egyptian  story  has  been  added  to  by  a  Ramaside  scribe  tack- 
ing on  pieces  of  the  Phrygian  Attis  myth  and  borrowing  the  name, 
which  took  the  form  of  Bata.  Attis,  we  know,  was  transformed  into 
a  pine  tree.  Perhaps  tree-worship  gave  rise  to  the  folk-tale,  if,  as  has 
been  seen,  and  as  Mr  Grant  Allen  suggests  {The  Attis  of  Catullus)^ 
tree-worship  is  a  form  of  ancestor-worship,  the  tree  growing  on  the 
grave  being  identified  with  the  person  buried  below.  What  concerns 
us  here,  however,  is  the  incident  of  the  separable  soul  or  heart,  which 
takes  us  back  to  primitive  psychology  at  once.  For  the  tale  itself,  see 
Flinders-Petrie,  ii.  36  ;  Records  of  the  Past,  ii.  137  ;  Maspero,  p.  5. 

2  The  Book  of  the  Dead  contains  chapters  for  providing  a  new 
heart,  as  well  as  for  overcoming  the  Destroyer.  The  idea  of  the 
heart  as  the  seat  of  life  recurs  among  the  Red  Indians  and  in  ancient 
Mexico,  where  the  palpitating  heart  of  the  victim  was  torn  out  and 
offered  to  the  gods.     Reville,  Hibbert  Lectures,  p.  43. 


AFRICAN  TALES  129 

of  the  heart  of  a  dead  woman  has  affinities  with  this 
early  Egyptian  tale,  and  may  possibly  have  reached  the 
Hottentots  from  Egyptian  sources,  may  most  fitly  be 
referred  to  here.  A  lion  killed  and  ate  a  girl ;  then, 
having"  put  on  her  skin,  dress,  and  ornaments,  person- 
ated her  in  her  mother's  kraal.  At  night,  when  in 
bed,  the  lion  was  discovered  by  some  of  his  hair 
hanging  outside  the  girl's  skin,  and  he  was  at  once 
burned  to  death.  The  heart  of  the  girl  jumped  out 
of  his  body,  and  was  placed  by  the  mother  in  a 
calabash  of  milk.  As  it  increased  in  size  it  took  the 
form  of  the  girl,  while  the  calabash  also  grew  larger. 
Meanwhile  she  came  out  in  her  mother's  absence  and 
tidied  up  the  hut,  bidding  a  hare  say  he  had  done  it. 
But  her  mother  would  not  believe  the  hare,  and  dis- 
covered her  daughter  safe  and  sound  once  more.^ 
Here  the  heart  is  not  only  the  life,  but  almost  a  kind 
of  embryo  as  well,  which  grows  up  and  becomes  a 
replica  of  its  original  owner. 

In  a  Basuto  tale  with  a  Zulu  parallel,  a  girl  is 
eaten  by  were-animals  in  whose  charge,  as  men,  she 
has  been  sent  to  her  betrothed.  Her  heart  escapes, 
and  as  a  bird  joins  some  doves  ;  they  visit  the  hut  of 
the  husband's  sister,  who  suspects  that  the  beautiful 
bird  may  be  the  lost  wife,  and  bids  her  husband  come 
and  see  for  himself  He  seized  hold  of  the  bird ;  its 
wings  came  apart,  and  there  stepped  forth  the 
girl  herself,  whole  and  beautiful  as  ever.  In  other 
Basuto  tales  we  have  the  heart  escaping  as  a  bird ; 
I  have  referred  to  one  in  the  previous  chapter.^ 
Even  among  the  Australian  black  fellows  we  find  the 
separable  heart  conception  in  a  traditional  legend. 

^  Bleek,  p.  50. 

2  Jacottet,  p.  99.  The  girl  and  her  brother  were  children  of  a 
childless  woman.  Doves  took  a  drop  of  blood  from  each  of  her 
breasts,  placed  the  blood  with  seeds  of  sorgho  in  two  calabashes,  and 
bade  her  cover  them  up.  One  day  she  heard  voices  coming  from  the 
calabashes,  and  on  opening  them  found  a  beautiful  boy  and  girl. 

I 


130  THE  SEPARABLE  SOUL 

Two  mischievous  spirits  (Oruntja)  were  pursued  and 
killed  by  the  relations  of  a  man  whom  they  had  eaten. 
Their  hearts  came  out  of  their  bodies  and  lay  growl- 
ing on  the  ground.  The  avengers,  thinking  the 
Oruntja  were  not  properly  dead,  returned  and  speared 
the  bodies;  still  the  growling  continued.  After  a 
second  and  a  third  returning,  they  resorted  to  a 
stratagem.  Two  of  the  party  remained  behind 
hidden.  The  hearts,  which  always  ceased  growling 
as  soon  as  the  men  returned,  began  again,  thinking 
the  coast  was  clear.  Then  the  watchers  took  the 
hearts  and,  making  a  fire,  consumed  them  utterly. 
Perhaps  the  hearts  might  have  gone  into  the  bodies 
and  resuscitated  them,  but  for  this  treatment  which 
is  so  curiously  like  that  meted  out  to  vampires  in 
Europe.^ 

The  separable  heart  also  occurs  in  a  Samoyede 
tale.  Seven  brothers  killed  a  woman  and  abducted 
her  daughter.  They  had  a  custom  of  taking  out 
their  hearts  and  sleeping  without  them,  and  they  now 
gave  them  every  night  to  the  girl  to  hang  them  up  on 
the  tent  pole.  Her  brother  came  to  the  hut  when  the 
men  were  asleep,  took  possession  of  the  hearts,  and 
entering  the  tent  with  them,  found  the  heartless 
brothers  at  the  point  of  death.  In  vain  they  begged 
him  to  give  them  back  their  hearts ;  he  was  as 
obdurate  as  ever  was  the  Maid  of  Athens,  and  fling- 
ing six  of  the  hearts  to  the  ground,  killed  six  of  the 
brothers.  He  promised  to  restore  his  heart  to  the 
seventh  if  he  would  give  him  back  his  mother  in  life. 
The  brother  informed  him  that  her  spirit  was  in  a 
bag,  which  he  was  to  shake  so  that  the  spirit  "might 
breathe  over  her  bones " ;  she  would  then  return  to 
life.  In  this  way  he  restored  his  mother,  but 
immediately  after  hurled  the  seventh  heart  to  the 

^  Spencer  and  Gillen,  Northern  Tribes^  p.  447.     See  p.  102  for  the 
vampire  belief. 


THE  MONKEY'S  LIVER  131 

ground,  breaking-  his  promise  in  the  approved  manner 
of  folk- tale  heroes.^  Compare  with  this  a  Malagasy 
tale  in  which  a  deity  marries  a  woman  and  then 
wishes  to  espouse  her  cousin  also.  The  jealous  first 
wife  causes  her  death  by  taking  out  her  liver.  The 
dead  woman's  younger  sister  weeps  at  her  grave  and 
bids  her  rise.  '*  I  cannot,  for  I  am  dead,"  she  replies. 
Then  the  husband  got  possession  of  the  liver,  put  it 
back  in  her  body,  after  which  she  came  to  life  again. 
Her  cousin  was  put  to  death.  A  Siamese  story  relates 
how  Thossakin,  king  of  Ceylon,  could  take  his  soul 
out  of  his  body  and  place  it  in  a  box.  This  he  did 
whenever  he  went  to  war,  thus  becoming  invulnerable. 
Before  fighting  with  Rama  he  left  the  box  with  a 
hermit,  and  Rama  could  not  pierce  him  with  his  arrows, 
try  as  he  might.  But  his  ally  Hanuman  discovered 
through  divination  where  Thossakin's  soul  was,  and 
having  taken  the  form  of  the  king,  obtained  the  box 
from  the  hermit,  crushed  it  in  his  hands,  and  at  once  its 
owner  fell  dead.  The  idea  is  a  familiar  one  in  Eastern 
folk-tales,  for  in  the  Panchatantra  a  monkey  relates 
that  he  never  leaves  the  forest  where  he  lives  without 
leaving  his  heart  hidden  in  the  hollow  of  a  tree. 
Curiously  enough,  among  the  Swahilis  we  find  a 
monkey  asserting  the  same.  He  was  in  the  habit  of 
feeding  a  shark  with  fruit  from  a  tree.  One  day  the 
shark  invited  him  to  come  to  his  home  in  the  sea. 
Off  they  set,  but  on  the  way  the  shark  said,  *'Our 
sultan  is  ill,  and  nothing  can  cure  him  but  a  monkey's 
heart."  ''But  don't  you  know,"  replied  the  monkey, 
"that  we  always  leave  our  hearts  in  trees,  and  go 
about  with  our  bodies  only?"  and  made  good  his 
escape.  There  is  a  Japanese  parallel  to  this,  in  which 
the  monkey's  liver  is  required  for  the  Queen  of  the 
Sea.     After  he  has  been  conducted  to  her  palace 

^  Gastrin,  p.  174.  The  seven  brothers  with  one  (abducted)  wife 
may  be  a  relic  of  polyandry,  like  the  Lapp  story  of  the  Giant  Bird  in 
which  two  lads  have  one  king's  daughter  as  wife. 


132  THE  SEPARABLE  SOUL 

beneath  the  waves,  he  is  told  this  by  the  jelly-fish, 
and  at  once  says  that  he  always  keeps  his  liver  at 
home.  *'  It  is  raining ;  my  liver  will  decay,  and  I  will 
die,"  and  so  saying  he  starts  off,  as  he  said,  to  fetch 
it,  taking  good  care,  however,  not  to  go  back  again 
to  sea.^ 

We  may  be  sure  that  what  is  predicated  of  monkeys 
was  once  believed  possible  for  men  also.  It  may, 
however,  be  only  some  mythical  person  who  has  this 
power,  as  in  a  Navajoe  story,  where  a  maiden  who 
can  turn  herself  into  a  bear,  becomes  a  great  warrior 
and  is  invulnerable,  because  before  going  into  battle 
she  took  out  her  vital  organs  and  hid  them,  replacing 
them  on  her  return.  Possibly  some  such  conception 
of  the  separable  life  was  known  to  the  early  Hebrews, 
surviving  in  later  times  as  a  figure  of  speech,  as  where 
Abigail  says  to  David  that  should  anyone  seek  his 
soul  they  will  not  find  it,  for  it  is  ''bound  in  the 
bundle  of  life  with  the  Lord  thy  God,"  who,  on  the 
other  hand,  will  sling  out  the  souls  of  his  enemies. 
It  is  evident  that  the  underlying  thought  is  the  safety 
of  the  soul  outside  the  body  so  long  as  it  is  preserved 
in '"the  bundle  of  life.  "^ 

We  shall  see  later  that  these  folk-tales  are  really 
the  reflection  of  actual  custom.  Let  us  note  mean- 
while that  in  folk-tale,  as  in  custom,  the  life  (heart, 
soul,  etc.)  may  be  removed  by  an  enemy  to  cause 
death  or  harm.  A  Polish  knight  took  a  witch 
prisoner,  but  while  he  was  asleep  she  struck  his 
breast  with  an  aspen  twig  till  it  opened.  Then  she 
took  out  his  heart,  substituting  for  it  the  heart  of  a 
hare.  Thus  he  became  an  arrant  coward  and  died  of 
his  fears. ^    Another  witch  in  a  Russian  tale  torments 

^  Ferrand,  p.  'j'j.     Bastian,  Die  Voelker  des  Oestlichen  Asiens,  iv. 
340.     Steere,  p.  i.     Griffis,  p.  144. 

2  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  Fifth  Annual  Report^  p.  407.     i  Samuel 
XXV.  29.     See  Journal  of  Theol.  Studies^  iii.  327. 

3  Naake,  p.  36. 


MALBROUK  ^  133 

a  prince  whose  heart  she  has  obtained,  by  seething  it 
in  her  devil's  cauldron,  while  in  a  Mongol  story  a 
dead  Khan  is  restored  to  life  by  his  wife,  after  terrible 
trials,  recovering-  his  heart  from  the  sorcerers  who 
have  taken  possession  of  it.^  We  have  seen  how,  in 
the  Samoyede  story  of  the  seven  brothers,  the  soul  of 
the  murdered  woman  is  kept  in  a  bag.  Thus  what 
various  persons  do  for  safety,  other  evilly-disposed 
people,  sorcerers,  etc.,  can  do  for  their  own  evil  ends. 
But  whenever  the  life  is  separated  voluntarily  from 
the  body,  it  is  safe  just  so  long  as  its  hiding-place  is 
safe,  and  until  an  enemy  gets  hold  of  it.  This 
introduces  us  to  a  widespread  cycle  of  stories,  of 
which  there  are  scores  of  variants,  and  in  which  the 
idea  is  dramatised  in  the  most  skilful  way.  In  every 
case,  too,  it  should  be  noted  that  the  being  who  hides 
his  life  away  is  always  wicked  and  most  usually 
supernatural.  In  most  variants  this  being  has  stolen 
away  a  girl,  who  worms  the  secret  of  his  life  out  of 
him,  reveals  it  to  the  hero  (her  lover,  brother,  hus- 
band, etc.),  who  then  compasses  the  death  of  the 
ravager. 

I  shall  cite  with  some  detail  a  Basque  story,  which 
may  be  taken  as  typical  of  this  cycle.  Malbrouk  was 
the  youngest  of  three  brothers,  and  succeeded  where 
they  failed  in  rescuing  two  daughters  of  a  king 
from  the  monsters  who  had  abducted  them.  He  had 
more  difficulty  in  discovering  the  third,  but  at  last 
succeeded,  only  to  be  told  that  he  had  better  flee,  as  the 
monster  without  a  soul  was  coming.  At  once  he 
transformed  himself  into  an  ant  and  hid  in  the  girls 
bosom,  bidding  her  ask  the  monster  what  she  would 
do  if  he  were  to  die.  The  monster,  on  being  asked 
this,  informed  her  he  was  deathless,  and  after  much 
coaxing  said,  ''You  must  kill  a  terrible  wolf  which  is 
in  the  forest,  and  inside  him  is  a  fox,  in  the  fox  Is  a 

^  Ralston,  p.  114;  Busk,  p.  10. 


134  THE  SEPARABLE  SOUL 

pigeon;  this  pigreon  has  an  egg  in  his  head,  and 
whoever  should  strike  me  on  the  head  with  this  egg- 
will  kill  me.  But  who  will  know  all  that  ?  Nobody." 
Malbrouk,  however,  has  heard  all.  A  wolf,  a  dog-,  a 
hawk,  and  an  ant  have  previously,  out  of  gratitude, 
told  him  how  to  take  their  shapes.  In  the  form  of  a 
wolf  he  kills  the  monster's  wolf  That  moment  the 
monster  complains  to  the  girl  that  something  must  be 
going  to  happen.  Malbrouk  opens  the  wolf;  out 
jumps  the  fox,  and  is  pursued  by  the  hero  in  the  form 
of  a  dog.  After  a  long  pursuit  and  fight,  he  kills  it. 
The  pigeon  flies  off,  followed  by  Malbrouk  as  a  hawk. 
At  last  he  obtains  the  egg,  which  he  takes  to  the 
girl,  bidding  her  act  now.  The  monster  comes 
staggering  in,  crying  that  it  is  all  over  with  him.  At 
once  she  strikes  him  on  the  forehead  with  the  tggy 
and  he  falls  dead.  That  Malbrouk  and  the  princess 
married  and  lived  happily  ever  after,  need  hardly  be 
said.^  In  this  story,  as  in  many  variants,  the  dramatic 
situation  is  cleverly  helped  out  by  the  grateful  animals, 
who  fit  in  neatly  with  those  in  which  the  monster's 
life  is  concealed,  and  help  the  hero  always  at  the 
psychological  moment. 

A  neat  turn  is  given  to  the  story  as  told  in 
Lorraine.  A  lion,  an  ant,  and  an  eagle  have  given 
the  hero  weapons  and  the  power  of  taking  their  shape, 
so  that  he  is  able  to  kill  the  six-headed  beast  who 
guards  the  imprisoned  princess.  In  the  last  head  he 
finds  three  eggs,  and  by  her  advice  he  throws  one  at 
the  giant's  head.  The  giant  turns  ill.  He  throws 
the  second  egg,  and  kills  him.  Then  the  third,  thrown 
at  the  wall,  causes  a  beautiful  carriage  drawn  by  four 
horses  to  appear,  and  in  it  hero  and  princess  drive 
away.^  The  Breton  variant  describes  the  giant's  life 
as  being  in  an  egg,  in  a  dove,  in  a  hare,  in  a  wolf, 
which  lives  in  a  coffer  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea. 

^  Webster,  p.  82.  ^  Cosquin,  i.  166. 


THE  GIANT  WITH  NO  HEART  IN  HIS  BODY   135 

"  And  who  do  you  think  will  be  able  to  kill  me  now  ? "' 
says  he,  not  knowing"  that  death  is  near.^  There  are 
many  Celtic  variants  of  the  story,  and  in  nearly  all 
the  hero  has  had  to  experience  many  trials  before  he 
could  win  his  love.  He  has  no  sooner  done  so  than 
she  is  carried  off  by  a  giant.  This  sad  fate  befell  the 
youngf  king  of  Easaidh  Ruadh.  He  was  assisted  in 
his  search  by  a  dog,  a  falcon,  and  an  otter,  and  at 
last  reached  the  giant's  den,  where  his  wife  hid  him. 
She  then  set  about  enquiring  where  the  giant  kept 
his  soul.  He  told  her,  first,  that  it  was  in  the 
*'  Bonnach  stone,"  then  in  the  threshold,  and  seeing 
that  she  treated  these  with  respect,  revealed  the 
secret.  "There  is  a  flagstone  under  the  threshold. 
There  is  a  wether  under  the  flag.  There  is  a  duck  in 
the  wether's  belly,  and  an  Ggg  in  the  belly  of  the  duck, 
and  it  is  in  the  eg^  that  my  soul  is."  The  friendly 
dog-  pulled  out  the  wether;  the  falcon  caught  the 
duck  as  it  flew  away ;  :and  the  otter  recovered  the 
Ggg  from  the  ocean,  into  which  it  had  rolled.  It  only 
remained  to  crush  the  egg,  and  so  put  an  end  to  the 
giant.  This  incident  recurs  in  "The  Sea- Maiden," 
a  story  belonging  to  a  different  cycle.^  In  this  case 
a  sea-beast  captures  the  king's  daughter,  but  her 
husband  is  told  by  a  smith  that  the  soul  of  the  beast 
is  in  an  egg,  in  a  trout,  in  a  hoodie,  in  a  hind  which 
lives  on  an  island  in  the  midst  of  the  loch. 

Among  Norse  variants  that  of  "The  Giant  with 
no  Heart  in  his  Body"  is  well  known.  It  is  closely 
paralleled  by  the  North  German  version.  Six 
brothers  set  out  to  seek  wives,  leaving  their  youngest 
brother  at  home,  but  promising  to  bring  him  a  wife. 
On  their  way  they  pass  the  house  of  an  old  man  who 
bids  them  bring  him  a  wife.  Returning  with  seven 
sisters,  they  refuse  to  give  him  the  youngest,  and  all 
save  this  one  are  turned  to  stone.     She  tells  the  old 

1  Luzel,  V.  13.  Campbell,  i.  10,  82. 


136  THE  SEPARABLE  SOUL 

man  she  is  uneasy  lest  he  should  die.  *'  I  cannot  die  ; 
for  I  have  no  heart  in  my  breast."  Then  he  tells  her 
it  is  in  the  coverlet ;  she  decorates  that  with  flowers. 
So  also  she  treats  the  house  door,  till  at  last  he  tells  her 
the  truth.  In  a  solitary  place  is  a  church  secured  by 
iron  doors,  and  in  it  is  a  bird.  "  So  long-  as  it  lives  I 
cannot  die,  and  no  one  can  catch  it."  Soon  after  the 
seventh  brother  comes  to  the  house  and  tells  the  girl 
his  story.  She  in  turn  discloses  the  old  man's  secret, 
and  helped  by  an  ox,  a  boar,  and  a  griffin  whom  he 
has  fed,  he  obtains  the  bird.  The  old  man  turns  ill. 
Then  the  youth  gives  the  bird  a  pinch ;  he  swoons. 
Finally  the  bird  is  squeezed  to  death,  and  the  man 
dies.  All  the  brothers  and  their  wives  are  then 
restored  to  life  by  means  of  the  old  man's  magic 
rod.i 

In  several  Russian  variants  Koshchei  the  Death- 
less is  the  being-  whose  life  is  not  in  his  body.  One 
version  relates  how  he  stole  Prince  Ivan's  mother. 
Ivan  arrives  at  the  palace  and  is  hid  by  his  mother, 
who  asks  Koshchei  where  his  death  is.  In  a  certain 
place  is  an  oak,  under  it  is  a  casket,  in  which  is  a  hare. 
There  is  a  duck  in  the  hare,  and  in  the  duck  an  egg, 
which  is  Koshchei's  death.  Assisted  by  a  pike,  a 
wolf,  and  a  crow,  Ivan  obtains  the  fatal  eg-g,  and 
though  Koshchei  entreats  that  he  will  spare  him,  he 
has  no  mercy,  and  smashes  the  egg-.  In  one  variant 
he  kills  Koshchei  by  throwing-  the  egg  at  his  fore- 
head.^ A  Greek  variant  is  connected  with  the  Life- 
token  series.  The  Drako's  strength  is  in  three 
golden  hairs  in  his  head.  These  open  a  chamber  in 
which  are  three  doves.  When  one  of  these  is  killed, 
the  Drako  falls  sick ;  the  death  of  the  second  makes 
him  very  ill ;  and  when  the  third  is  destroyed  he  dies. 

1  Thorpe,  Y.T.S.^  p.  435.  The  Norse  variant  is  in  Dasent,  P.T., 
p.  47.  There  is  an  egg  in  the  duck,  which  is  in  a  well  within  the 
church. 

2  Ralston,  p.  100  se^. 


VARIANTS  137 

By  discovering-  this  secret  the  hero  wins  back  his 
sister  from  the  Drako's  clutches.^  Half-iron,  accord- 
ing to  an  Albanian  story,  has  stolen  a  bride.  By  her 
husband's  advice  she  feigns  to  be  dying,  and  tells 
Half-iron  he  has  nothing  to  fear  from  her.  So  he  tells 
her  his  power  is  in  the  broom,  which  she  burns.  But 
it  is  not  there.  Again  she  pretends  to  be  ill,  and  this 
time  finds  out  the  truth.  In  the  silver  tusk  of  a  boar 
is  a  hare,  in  which  are  three  pigeons,  and  if  these  are 
killed  Half-iron  will  die.^  It  would  be  tedious  to  cite 
even  a  tenth  of  the  remaining  European  variants,  and 
I  shall  therefore  refer  only  to  some  other  methods 
employed  by  the  ravisher  to  hide  his  life.  To  destroy 
the  life  of  the  magician  of  a  Tuscan  story  the  hero 
has  to  cut  down  a  wood,  dry  up  a  fountain,  kill  the 
eagle  in  the  fountain,  and  having  taken  an  eg^  from 
its  body,  throw  it  at  the  magician's  head.  Another 
magician,  in  an  Italian  tale  of  the  Aladdin  type,  has 
his  life  in  the  seventh  head  of  a  hydra  in  a  distant 
forest.  In  that  head  is  a  leveret,  in  which  is  a  bird. 
There  is  a  precious  stone  in  this  bird,  and  if  it  be 
placed  under  his  pillow  he  will  die.^  There  are  many 
Hungarian  versions.  Thus  the  king  of  the  dwarfs, 
having  deceived  the  stolen  bride  several  times,  at  last 
tells  her  that  his  life  is  in  a  golden  cockchafer,  in  a 
golden  cock,  in  a  golden  sheep,  in  a  golden  stag,  in  a 
certain  island.^  The  hero  of  a  Serbian  story  has  to 
kill  a  dragon  in  a  lake  near  a  royal  city.  The  strength 
of  another  dragon,  who  has  the  hero's  brothers  and 
other  victims  in  his  power,  is  in  a  sparrow,  which  is 
in  a  dove,  within  a  hare  concealed  in  a  boar  in  the 

^  Garnett,  ii.  175. 

'^  Dozon,  p.  131.  In  a  variant  of  Hahn's,  No.  64,  the  one-eyed 
ogre's  strength  is  in  two  pigeons  within  the  belly  of  a  wild 
boar. 

^  Busk,  "  How  Cajusse  was  married."  Cf.  a  Greek  story,  in  which  a 
hunchback's  strength  is  in  the  tenth  head  of  a  serpent.  Hahn, 
No.  64. 

^  /did.    The  hero  is  assisted  by  animals. 


138  THE  SEPARABLE  SOUL 

first  dragon's  body.^  Finally  a  Lapp  giant  is  burned 
to  death  when  the  hero  burns  the  life-egg,  which  is 
enclosed  in  a  hen,  in  a  sheep,  in  a  cask,  on  a  burning 
island.^ 

Outside  Europe,  especially  in  India,  the  same 
story  is  found,  and  in  the  Indian  variants  the  pre- 
cautions of  the  rakshasa  (the  equivalent  of  the  familiar 
ogre)  are  even  more  elaborate.  As  told  in  Bengal  the 
story  runs  thus.  Champa  Dal  discovers  a  maiden 
who  is  the  prisoner  of  a  rakshasa.  They  resolve  to 
find  out  on  what  the  rakshasa's  life  depends.  In  a 
tank  is  a  crystal  pillar,  on  the  top  of  which  are  two 
bees  under  deep  water.  If  any  human  being  can  dive 
under,  and  return  to  land  with  the  bees,  destroying 
them  so  that  not  a  drop  of  their  blood  falls  to  the 
earth,  the  rakshasa  will  die.  Otherwise  a  thousand 
rakshasas  will  start  from  the  blood.  But  what  human 
being  will  find  this  out,  or,  finding  it  out,  be  able  to 
achieve  the  feat  ?  Champa  Dal,  however,  is  equal  to 
the  task,  and  destroys  the  rakshasa.^  Sometimes  it 
is,  only  one  particular  person  who  can  perform  the 
task,  as  in  another  version  where  he  who  kills  the 
bees  must  be  a  boy  with  the  moon  on  his  forehead, 
or  as  in  a  third,  the  lame  son  of  the  queen  of  a 
distant  land.  Of  course  they  are  precisely  the  persons 
who  are  plotting  against  the  rakshasa.*  The  famous 
Indian  story  of  Punchkin  relates  how  he  carried  off 
the  hero's  mother  and  uncles,  turning  the  latter  to 
stone.  She  wormed  the  secret  of  his  life  out  of  him, 
and  then  told  it  to  her  son.  Away  in  a  jungle  is  a 
desolate  country  in  which  stands  a  circle  of  palms. 
Among  the  palms  are  six  chattees  of  water.     Below 

1  Vuk  Karajich,  No.  8. 

2  Germania^  iii.  174.     Helpful  animals  occur  in  this  story. 

3  Day,  p.  84.  In  a  Kashmir  variant  the  rakshasa's  soul  is  in  a 
pillar  supporting  the  verandah.  Break  the  pillar  and  the  rakshasa 
will  die. 

*  Day,  p.  253  ;  Indian  Antiquary^  1872,  p.  115. 


PUNCHKIN  139 

the  sixth  is  a  cage  in  which  is  a  parrot.  But  there 
are  crowds  of  genii  round  the  palms  to  defend  Punch- 
kin's  life.  However,  the  hero  is  carried  thither  while 
the  genii  are  asleep,  by  eagles  which  he  has  rescued 
from  a  serpent,  and  obtains  the  parrot.  Punchkin 
offers  him  anything  for  it.  **  Restore  my  uncles  to 
life,"  says  the  hero.  Punchkin  does  so.  Then  the 
hero  tears  off  the  parrot's  wings  and  legs,  and  with 
each  the  corresponding  limb  of  the  magician  falls  off. 
Lastly,  he  wrings  its  neck  and  Punchkin  dies.^ 
Among  Kashmir  stories  there  is  one  of  a  prince 
hidden  by  a  princess  whom  a  jinn  has  carried  off. 
The  jinn's  life  is  in  a  bee  within  a  honey-comb,  on  a 
tree  which  can  only  be  reached  by  means  of  a  magic 
stool.  The  prince  obtains  the  stool,  then  the  bee,  and 
so  deprives  the  jinn  of  life. ^ 

Even  more  elaborate  are  the  precautions  of  the 
Tartar  Taschkhan  who,  having  stolen  a  woman,  is 
told  by  her  that  she  will  become  his  wife  provided 
that  he  tells  her  where  he  keeps  his  soul.  He  replied 
that  there  was  a  fountain  of  gold  under  seven  poplars, 
to  which  seven  deer  came  to  drink.  In  one  of  these 
was  a  golden  casket,  containing  a  silver  casket,  in 
which  were  seven  quails,  one  of  which  had  a  golden 
head  and  a  silver  body.  That  was  his  true  soul.  In 
this  case  it  is  the  woman's  brother-in-law,  who,  hav- 
ing heard  all,  destroys  Taschkhan.^  A  story  from 
Kamaon  has  some  affinities  with  the  North  German 
and  Norse  tales  already  cited.  A  fakir  has  trans- 
ported a  princess  to  the  shore  of  the  seventh  sea. 
Her  husband  and  his  six  brothers  come  to  seek  her, 

1  Frere,  p.  13.  ^  Knowles,  p.  380. 

^  Radloff,  iv.  88.  In  the  Arabian  Nights  a  jinn  who  has  stolen  a 
maiden  has  his  soul  in  a  sparrow  shut  up  in  eight  boxes,  within  seven 
coffers  in  the  heart  of  a  block  of  marble  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea.  It 
had  been  prophesied  that  he  should  die  by  human  hands,  hence  his 
precautions— an  incident  which  is  not  found  in  the  other  variants. 
Clouston,  P,T,F.,  i.  349. 


140  THE  SEPARABLE  SOUL 

and  are  chang-ed  Into  trees.  The  son  of  one  of  these 
brothers  arrives,  and  bids  her  ask  the  fakir  where  he 
kept  his  breath.  She  arrives  at  the  secret  by  pre- 
tending sorrow  for  his  death,  which  Inevitably 
"  Cometh,  soon  or  late."  **  But  I  am  Immortal,  for  on 
the  shore  of  the  sixth  sea  Is  a  palace  under  which  Is  a 
hospice.  Beneath  It  Is  an  Iron  cage.  In  which  Is  a 
parakeet.  When  that  parakeet  Is  killed,  I  shall 
die."  The  youth  obtains  possession  of  the  palace  by 
marrying  the  daughter  of  the  king  of  that  land,  and 
then,  having  found  the  parakeet,  forces  the  fakir  to 
restore  the  seekers,  after  which  he  kills  hlm.-^ 

The  Incident  of  the  separable  soul  occurs  In  other 
cycles  of  stories.  Of  the  cycle  In  which  a  hero 
overcomes  someone,  usually  his  captor,  either  by 
himself  or  by  following  the  advice  of  a  fellow-captive 
or  a  treacherous  relative,  there  are  several  variants. 
The  Magyar  story  of  the  Three  Princes  and  the 
Three  Dragons  makes  the  dragon's  witch-mother  fall 
in  love  with  the  reluctant  Ambrose.  Her  maid  (a 
princess  In  disguise)  advises  him  to  ask  her  how  she 
keeps  alive  so  long.  After  much  wheedling  she  tells 
him.  There  is  a  wild  boar  in  a  silken  meadow,  In  It 
is  a  hare  In  which  is  a  pigeon.  In  the  pigeon  Is  a  box 
containing  a  dark  beetle,  which  is  her  power,  and  a 
white  beetle  which  Is  her  llfe.^  Doghead,  a  Magyar 
giant,  keeps  his  strength  in  a  cask  In  the  seventh 
cellar  of  his  castle.  His  daughter  gives  Prince  MIrko 
a  supply  of  her  father's  strength,  and  in  the  fight 
which  follows  he  easily  overcomes  the  giant. ^  The 
idea  is  found  embedded  in  the  Persian  romance  of  the 
History  of  Nassar.  A  witch  In  w^hose  power  Shah 
Mannsur  is  held,  changes  herself  Into  a  spider,  which 
disappears  Into  the  mouth  of  a  marble  lion,  emerging 
as  a  viper  and  then  entering  a  phial.  Mannsur  is 
advised  by  a  beautiful  fellow- captive  to  strike  the 

^  Minaef,  No.  lo.  ~  Jones,  p.  205.  ■'  Ibid.,  p.  72. 


VARIANTS  141 

phial  with  a  stone,  and  the  witch  will  die.  He  does 
so ;  everything  disappears  by  mag-ic ;  and  he  after- 
wards finds  that  the  witch,  in  the  form  of  a  cat,  had 
expired  in  great  agfony.^  Rama  and  Lakshmana,  in 
an  Indian  legend,  were  carried  off  by  the  giant 
Mairavana.  Hanuman  learned  from  the  giant's  sister 
that  his  life  was  composed  of  five  vital  airs  in  the  form 
of  five  black  bees  on  a  far  distant  mountain.  These 
he  catches  and  kills,  and  Mairavana  at  once  perishes.^ 
The  hero  appears  in  a  less  pleasant  light  in  a  story 
from  Dardistan.  Azru  had  secretly  married  the 
daughter  of  a  king,  and  forced  her  to  find  out  where  he 
keeps  his  soul.  This  she  does  by  the  usual  pretence 
of  anxiety  for  his  safety,  and  he  tells  her  it  is  hidden 
in  the  snows  and  can  only  perish  by  means  of  fire.^ 
A  Pamir  story  resembles  the  Indian  one  just  quoted. 
A  prince  fights  a  dwarf,  but  as  often  as  he  cuts  off  the 
dwarfs  head,  it  flies  on  again.  At  last  he  is  told  that 
the  dwarfs  life  is  hidden  in  two  stones,  and  by  this 
information  he  succeeds  in  killing  him.*  Lastly,  there 
is  a  Kashmir  story  in  which  a  witch,  to  save  a 
princess,  dashes  a  small  earthen  vessel  to  pieces,  and 
so  destroys  her  brother's  life.^ 

1  Clouston,  E.R.,  p.  25.  2  ciouston,  P.T.R.,  i.  350. 

2  Leitner,  iii.  8.  ^  Jour.  As.  Soc.  Bengal,  xlvi.,  part  i.,  No.  2. 
^  Knowles,  p.  73.     In  another  cycle,  to  which  may  be  given  the 

name  of  the  Wicked  Queen,  and  of  which  there  are  many  Eastern 
variants,  a  king,  having  married  a  rakshasi,  has  his  mind  poisoned 
against  his  other  wives  by  her,  and  ill-treats  them.  The  son  of  one  of 
these  wives  goes  to  the  rakshasi's  mother  and  pretends  to  be  her 
grandson.  She  shows  him  seven  cocks,  a  spinning-wheel,  a  pigeon, 
and  a  starling.  These  contain  the  lives  of  the  rakshasi-queen's 
brothers,  her  mother,  father,  and  of  herself.  He  kills  the  cocks  and 
pigeon,  and  destroys  the  spinning-wheel,  and  then  goes  off  to  his  father 
with  the  starling.  In  his  presence  he  chokes  it  and  the  rakshasi 
dies,  making  everyone  happy  once  more.  This  is  the  Kashmir  version 
(Knowles,  p.  42).  There  are  many  Indian  variants  (Day,  p.  117, 
"The  Boy  whom  Seven  Mothers  Suckled";  Stokes,  pp.  51,  173; 
Steele  and  Temple,  p.  98).  So  far  as  I  know  there  are  no  direct 
equivalents  in  Europe,  perhaps  for  the  reason  that  polygamy  has  so 
long  been  offensive  to  Western  minds. 


142  THE  SEPARABLE  SOUL 

The  separable  life  incident  occurs  in  two  Italian 
Bluebeard  tales.  One  gfirl  is  careful  to  put  aside  the 
balls  which  her  predecessors  dropped  in  the  Forbidden 
Chamber,  The  monster  was  deceived,  and  trusted 
her  so  much  as  to  tell  her  that  his  life  was  dependent 
on  an  egg".  She  asked  him  to  show  it  to  her,  and 
then  knocked  it  out  of  his  hand  so  that  it  was  broken 
and  he  died.  This  is  the  Tuscan  version  ;  the  Sicilian 
is  more  curious  still.  A  robber's  life  depends  on  a 
magic  head  which  tells  tales  on  the  two  sisters,  his 
successive  wives.  They  are  put  to  death,  but  the 
third  and  youngest  sister  flatters  the  head  so  much 
that  it  follows  her  into  the  kitchen,  where  she  begins 
to  comb  its  locks.  While  thus  engaged  she  throws 
it  into  the  oven  and  the  robber's  death  follows.^ 

Several  of  the  tales  passed  under  review  make  the 
giant's  life  depend  on  an  egg  which  must  be  thrown 
at  his  forehead  before  he  can  be  killed.  This  is 
suggestive  of  the  Norse  myth  of  Balder,  whom  the 
mistletoe  alone  could  kill  when  it  was  thrown  at  him, 
and  is  further  illustrated  by  the  Algonquin  legend  of 
Glooskap.  His  wicked  brother  Malsumsis  asked 
what  would  kill  him.  Glooskap  deceived  him  several 
times,  as  the  giant  or  sorcerer  of  some  of  our  tales 
did  to  the  heroine,  but  finally,  as  he  sat  by  a  brook, 
murmured,  ''Nothing  but  a  flowering  rush  can  kill 
me."  The  beaver  overheard  him  and  told  Malsumsis, 
asking  wings  as  a  reward.  Malsumsis  laughed  at 
him,  and  the  animal  revealed  all  to  Glooskap,  who, 
taking  a  fern  root  (which  was  his  brother's  life),  smote 
him  in  his  sleep  with  it  so  that  he  died.^  Compare  now 
a  Welsh  story  with  these.  Llew,  in  the  Madznog'z  of 
Mathab  Mathonwy,  is  asked  by  his  wife,  who  loves 

^  Imbriani,  p.  7.     Gonzenbach,  i.  135.      See  p.  321. 

2  Leland,  A.L.j  p.  16  ;  cf.  106,  and  an  Iroquois  variant,  p,  25. 
Mr  Leland  thinks  many  of  these  Indian  tales  were  borrowed  from  the 
Norsemen.  If  so,  this  is,  perhaps,  the  Balder  myth  retold  in 
aboriginal  dress. 


EXPLANATION  OF  THE  SEPARABLE  SOUL     143 

Gronw,  what  will  kill  him.  He  must  be  in  a  certain 
position  after  taking-  a  bath.  Then  if  anyone  cast  a 
spear  at  him,  he  would  die,  but  the  spear  must  have 
been  a  year  in  making-,  during  the  hour  of  the  sacrifice 
on  Sunday.  Gronw  obtained  such  a  spear,  but  Llew, 
instead  of  dying,  flew  off  in  the  form  of  an  eagle.  It 
is  not  easy  to  see  why  touching  a  person  with  his  life 
should  cause  his  death,  except  by  jumping-  to  the  con- 
clusion that  what  is  one  s  life  becomes  one's  death. 
Probably  the  real  significance  rests,  as  in  the  other 
tales,  on  the  fact  that  the  life  has  fallen  into  an  enemy's 
hands.^ 

While  the  more  dramatic  forms  of  the  Separable 
Soul  incident  are  found  in  European  and  Oriental 
tales,  we  have  traced  the  idea  in  all  parts  of  the 
world,  among-  savages,  and  back  to  a  very  remote 
past.  We  have  seen  that  actual  folk-custom — the 
intimate  connection  of  some  separate  object  with  a 
man's  life — throws  some  light  on  this  incident  of  so 
many  folk-tales  ;  it  remains  to  suggest,  in  more  detail, 
further  reasons  for  such  a  belief  Mr  Clodd  has 
discussed  many  of  these  tales  in  his  Philosophy  of 
Punchkin,  and  finds  the  orig-in  of  the  idea  in  the 
primitive  belief  that  the  soul  can  leave  the  body.^  If 
it  can  do  so,  it  is  easy  to  g-o  on  to  believe  that  it  may 
be  deposited  in  a  safe  place.  Dr  Frazer  starts  with 
that  belief,  and  goes  on  to  show,  with  that  wealth  of 
illustration  characteristic  of  his  studies,  which  leaves 
so  little  room  for  original  discovery  in  those  who  come 
after  him,  how  some  tribes  believe  that  the  soul  can  be 
deposited  in  a  safe  place,  how  others  believe  that  the 
life  or  strength  is  in  the  hair,  how  others  choose  a  life- 

^  In  Scandinavian  belief,  Thor,  being  challenged  by  the  giant 
Hymir  to  break  his  cup,  after  dashing  it  in  vain  against  various 
objects  which  were  themselves  broken,  was  advised  by  a  woman  to 
throw  it  at  the  giant's  forehead,  when  it  was  at  once  shattered.  But 
nothing  happened  to  the  giant.     Thorpe,  i.  68. 

2  F.L,/.^  ii.  303.     Cf.  Clodd,  Myths  and  Dreams^  p.  188  seq. 


144  THE  SEPARABLE  SOUL 

tree  at  the  birth  of  a  child.  From  this  we  are  led  on 
to  Totemism  in  its  various  forms,  while  it  is  suggested 
that  the  pretended  killing-  of  a  youth  in  savage  rites 
of  initiation  is  really  meant  for  the  depositing  of  his 
soul  or  life  with  his  totem,  after  which  he  comes  to 
life  again. 

Various  lines  of  primitive  thought  have  evidently 
led  up  to  the  practice  which  is  enshrined  in  these 
folk- tales.  It  is  based,  first  of  all,  on  the  primitive 
law  of  sympathetic  rnagic,  that  whatever  is  done  to 
the  part  is^^oneto  the  whole,  even  though  it  is 
separate  from  that  whole.  Hence  the  care  which  the 
savage  takes  of  hair  and  nail  clippings,  etc.,  lest  an 
enemy  should  obtain  them  and  work  harm  by  their 
means.  Such  evident  sources  of  harm  are  those 
parts,  such  as  the  caul,  placenta,  etc.,  closely  con- 
nected with  the  child  at  birth.  Their  importance  to 
the  child  is  immense ;  and  from  being  regarded  as 
sources  of  harm  in  hostile  hands  they  are  frequently 
looked  upon  as  potent  influences  over  the  child's 
whole  life.  In  a  sense  they  are  his  life.  In  Amboina 
the  caul  is  preserved,  and  if  the  child  turns  ill  he  is 
made  to  drink  water  in  which  it  has  been  dipped. 
Such  a  belief  as  this  must  once  have  been  common 
in  primitive  Europe,  for  the  talismanic  virtues  of  a 
caul  are  still  known  to  sailors  ;  but  even  closer  to  the 
savage  theory  is  the  Icelandic  conception.  The  caul 
contains  the  child's  guardian  spirit,  or  part  of  his 
soul ;  it  is  buried  under  the  threshold  ;  and  if  it  were 
to  be  thrown  away  or  burned  the  child  would  be 
deprived  of  his  guardian  spirit.^  With  this  we  may 
compare  the  Breton  doctrine  of  the  werwolf  At 
daybreak  the  man  who  is  a  werwolf  resumes  his 
form  by  taking  off  his  skin  and  hiding  it,  but  what- 

^  Riedel,  p.  74.  Thorpe,  i.  114.  C/.  Gnmm,  D.M.,  S2S.  In  some 
parts  of  England  the  caul  is  believed  to  indicate  the  state  of  the 
owner's  health  when  he  is  absent,  by,  e.g.,  "  snerkling  up  "  when  he  is 
dead,  turning  moist  when  he  is  dying,  etc.     Jones,  p.  378. 


POWER  OF  THE  HAIR  145 

ever  happens  to  the  skin  happens  to  its  owner.  Has 
it  been  placed  in  a  cold  place,  he  will  be  cold  all  day. 
One  man  hid  his  skin  in  an  oven  ;  a  fire  was  lit  in  the 
grate,  and  soon  the  owner  of  the  skin  began  to  leap 
about,  crying,  '*  I  burn,  I  burn."^  The  umbilical  cord 
has  also  potent  virtues ;  it  is  carefully  concealed  by 
many  races  ;  sometimes  it  is  used  as  an  amulet,  which 
the  child  carries  in  after-life.  So,  too,  the  necessity 
of  preserving-  one's  hair  from  falling  into  an  enemy's 
hands,  has  given  rise  to  the  idea  that  there  is  some- 
thing powerful  for  good  or  evil  in  the  hair  itself  To 
cut  it  causes  weakness,  think  various  savage  races, 
just  as  it  caused  weakness  to  Samson.  We  have 
already  seen  some  stories  in  which  not  the  whole 
hair,  but  some  particular  lock,  or  a  hair-string,  was 
the  seat  of  life.  The  idea  recurs  again  in  those  tales 
where  a  witch  enchants  or  petrifies  someone  by  means 
of  her  hair — the  witch's  power  acting  through  her 
hair ;  hence  mediaeval  witches  in  European  countries 
were  frequently  shaved  before  trial,  in  order  to  deprive 
them  of  their  power.  A  final  example  of  this  class  of 
beliefs  is  that  of  the  Central  Australian  natives 
already  referred  to.  Each  child  who  is  born  has  a 
churinga,  or  sacred  stone,  supposed  to  have  been 
dropped  by  the  spirit-ancestor  who  has  reincarnated 
himself  in  him.  It  is  kept  in  a  sacred  store-house, 
and  is  intimately  connected  with  the  child's  life. 
When  he  is  ill,  some  dust  scraped  from  it  is  mixed 
with  water  and  given  him  to  drink,  so  that  he  may  be 
strengthened.  The  churinga  is  nothing  but  the 
receptacle  of  the  child's  life.^ 

The  idea  of  the  separate  life  is  also  suggested  by 

^  Revue  Celtique^  i.  420.  In  tales  concerning  men  changed  to 
beasts  by  enchantment,  they  lose  their  beast  nature  when  the  skin  is 
burnt.  On  the  other  hand,  the  seal  or  mermaid  wife  recovers  it  when 
she  discovers  her  skin.  See  pp.  342-47.  The  v/erwolf  idea  differs 
ffom  both  of  these. 

-  See  p.  123.     Spencer  and  Gillen,  Native  Races^  pp.  135,  246. 

K 


146  TMli  SEPARABLE  SOUL 

the  widespread  group  of  beliefs  which,  for  conveni- 
ence, we  may  class  together  as  Totemism.  Whether 
the  animal  or  plant  species  be  the  clan  totem,  sex 
totem,  or  the  totem  of  the  individual  (like  the  Red 
Indian  manitou),  it  is  everywhere  believed  that  there 
is  an  intimate  relation  existing  between  it  and  those 
with  whose  life  it  is  identified.  To  kill  a  totem  is 
highly  dangerous  to  the  person  whose  totem  it  is,  and 
the  same  holds  good  of  the  individual  manitou  or 
nagual.  There  is  a  close  relation  between  the  life  of 
the  one  and  that  of  the  other  :  when  the  owner  of  a 
nagual  dies,  the  nagual  also  dies,  and  vice  versa. 
This  may  be  the  reason  why  it  is  so  often  in  an 
animal  that  the  giant  has  hidden  away  his  life. 
Perhaps  the  animal  is  the  dim  remembrance  of  the 
once  all-important  animal  totem,  or  the  animal 
manitou.  As  we  have  seen,  Dr  Frazer  has  suggested 
that  the  rites  of  totem  initiation  with  many  races, 
when  the  youth  is  supposed  to  die  and  come  alive 
again,  may  have  no  other  reason  than  that  of  trans- 
ferring the  youth's  soul  to  his  totem.  His  recovery 
would  then  be  due  to  his  obtaining  the  soul  of  his 
totem,  or  an  infusion  of  fresh  life  from  it.^ 

The  possibility  of  the  soul  existing  temporarily 
apart  from  the  body,  as  in  sleep,  illness,  etc.,  is  held  by 
most  primitive  peoples.  As  it  is  a  common  savage 
belief  that  a  sorcerer  can  entice  a  man's  soul  out  of 
his  body  for  evil  purposes,  so  it  was  believed  in  some 
parts  of  Europe  that  fairies  could  steal  the  soul, 
leaving  a  fairy  soul  in  its  place ;  while  elsewhere  the 
same  power  was  ascribed  to  witches,  who  would 
remove  a  man's  heart  from  his  body  in  sleep,  replac- 
ing it  by  that  of  a  hare,  and  so  endowing  him  with  a 
cowardly  nature.  As  in  Russia  the  witch  is  supposed 
to  eat  the  heart,  so  in  West  Africa  witch-women  can 
deprive  a  man  of  his  life-soul,  a  kind  of  less  material 

^  Golden  Bough,  iii.  422  seq. 


THE  BUSH-SOUL  147 

duplicate  of  himself,  and  feast  on  it  in  a  mag-ic  orgfy. 
Its  owner  then  sickens  and  dies.^ 

Occasionally,  as  a  result  of  the  farther  belief  that 
a  man  may  have  two  or  more  souls,  it  Is  held  that  one 
of  them  may  exist  permanently  out  of  the  body.  But 
if  it  is  injured  the  owner  is  also  injured,  or  may  die. 
As  an  example,  we  may  take  that  of  the  West  African 
negroes.  Of  a  man's  four  souls,  one  is  contained  in  an 
animal  which  lives  out  in  the  bush  (hence  it  is  called 
the  bush  soul).  The  witch-doctor  alone  knows  what 
animal  it  is  In,  but  he  imparts  his  knowledge  to  the 
owner,  who  is  then  careful  not  to  Injure  any  animal  of 
that  kind.  But,  as  Miss  KIngsley  points  out,  the 
animal  in  whom  the  bush-soul  Is  may  be  a  reckless 
blade,  exposing  himself  to  danger.  He  is  shot  or 
trapped,  and  then  the  man's  death  must  inevitably 
ensue.  This  is  not  unlike  the  Roman  belief  in  the 
genius- — a  sort  of  external  soul  on  which  a  man's  life 
and  health  depended,  and  which  sometimes  appeared 
In  animal  form.  Similar  Ideas  are  found  among  the 
Karens,  Malays,  Banks  Islanders,  Zulus,  and  others."^ 
In  a  Samoan  story  two  girls  take  their  brother's 
shadow  and  put  It  In  a  bottle,  throwing  it  into  the 
water  where  the  beautiful  Sina  was  bathing.  She 
would  not  rest  till  she  had  found  the  original,  who, 
however,  refused  to  marry  her,  and  she  died  of  griefs 
Shadows  we  are^  and  skadozvs  we  pursue  ! 

Thus  we  see  several  strands  of  belief  all  pointing 
to  one  idea,  viz.,  that  the  life  Is  separate  from  the  man, 

^  Scott,  Minstrelsy,  p.  217.  Ralston,  Songs  of  the  Russian  People^ 
pp.  413-14.  Nassau,  p.  55  :  a  story  illustrating  this  belief  is  cited  on  p. 
5  supra.  Fairies  and  witches  are  invariably  confused  in  popular 
tradition ;  whatever  is  ascribed  to  the  one  is  ascribed  to  the  other ; 
while  in  many  cases  the  same  stories  are  told  of  ghosts. 

-  Miss  Kingsley,  p.  200  seq.  Jevons,  xlvii.  Frazer,  op.  cit., 
p.  407  seq. 

^  Turner,  p.  99.  In  another  tale  a  woman  puts  shadows  of  various 
objects  in  the  water.  A  man  sees  them,  jumps  in,  but  only  bruises  his 
head,  p.  loi.     This  is  akin  to  crystal-gazing. 


148  THE  SEPARABLE  SOUL 

and  that  whatever  is  done  to  It  Is  ipso  facto  done  to 
the  man  himself.  The  early  story-teller  soon  saw  the 
dramatic  possibilities  of  this  idea,  and  ultimately  gave 
it  two  forms,  that  of  the  Life-token  and  that  of  the 
Giant's  Life  tales,  setting  each  in  appropriate  sur- 
roundings, and  in  the  case  of  the  latter  working  up  to 
it  with  powerful  effect.  It  is  noteworthy  that  the 
very  people  with  whom  these  tales  were  so  popular 
after  the  actual  belief  itself  had  passed  away,  were 
themselves  acting  similarly  with  regard  to  the  caul, 
the  life-tree,  etc.  But  why  should  it  so  often  have 
been  a  wizard,  ogre,  or  rakshasi,  whose  life  was 
hidden  away?  Probably  for  the  same  reason  as 
cannibalism  is  also  predicated  in  folk-tales  of  these 
very  personages,  viz.,  because  the  custom  had  died 
out  among  the  folk  themselves,  and  had  to  be  trans- 
ferred to  some  supernatural  being.  An  actual 
example  of  this  occurs  among  the  Yakuts  of  Siberia, 
who  believe  that  the  wizard  keeps  his  soul  in  an 
animal,  and  that  if  this  animal  is  killed  the  wizard  also 
dies.  But  what  is  here  believed  of  the  wizard  was 
once  doubtless  possible  for  every  one.  And  in  the 
more  primitive  tales  the  same  holds  true.  (^The 
Egyptian  story  of  the  Two  Brothers,  the  Red  Indian 
tales,  and  others,  all  point  to  a  stage  in  which  the 
ordinary  person,  and  not  merely  a  giant,  was  Involved. 
But  as  the  story  germ  developed  the  wizard  or  giant 
became  the  villain  whose  boasted  immortality  (based 
on  what  was  once  a  primitive  practice)  was  overcome 
by  the  youthful  hero. ) 


CHAPTER    VI 

TRANSFORMATION 

Of  all  the  incidents  occurring  in  folk-tales  none  Is  so 
well-known  as  that  of  the  transformation  of  the  hero 
or  heroine,  or  of  other  persons,  into  animal  form. 
Based,  as  we  shall  see,  upon  ideas  derived  from 
primitive  psychology,  this  incident  occurs  in  many 
different  shapes,  of  each  of  which  there  are  countless 
varieties.  It  will  be  enough  for  our  purpose  to  show 
the  principal  cycles  In  which  the  Transformation 
incident  occurs,  and  to  cite  a  few  of  the  variants  as 
they  are  found  In  Europe  and  elsewhere.  It  should 
be  noted  that,  for  the  reason  that  the  possibility  of 
transformation  Is  one  of  the  chief  articles  of  primitive 
belief,  the  examples  of  the  incident  from  savage  folk- 
tales are  more  than  usually  numerous.  The  order  in 
which  we  shall  study  this  episode  is  as  follows  : — 

1.  Transformation  by  a  sorcerer  or  witch. 

2.  Transformation  by  bathing,  or  by  eating  or 
drinking. 

3.  Self-transformation. 

4.  The  Transformation  Combat. 

5.  {a)  Transformation  of  the  fugitive  lovers ;  (d) 
Transformation  of  objects  cast  away  by  them. 

1.  Transformation  by  a  sorcerer  or  witch.- — Here 
selection  is  especially  necessary.  Every  classical 
student  is  aware  how  filled  the  mythology  of  Greece 

149 


1 50  TRANSFORMATION 

is  with  the  transformation  of  men  and  women.  But 
usually  it  is  effected  by  the  gods  as  a  punishment.^ 
The  story  of  Circe,  as  preserved  by  Homer,  will  serve 
as  an  introduction  to  those  folk- tales  which  contain 
this  incident.  Circe,  having-  caused  the  followers  of 
Odysseus  to  forget  their  fatherland  by  means  of  her 
potent  drugs,  smote  them  with  her  wand  and  turned 
them  into  swine,  though  "their  mind  abode  even  as 
of  old."  Odysseus,  having  overcome  her,  forced  the 
enchantress  to  restore  his  friends  to  their  true  shape, 
which  she  did  by  anointing  them  with  a  magic  charm. 
This  is  an  excellent  example  of  the  literary  use  of  an 
already  existing  Greek  Mdrchen.  In  many  folk-tale 
cycles  the  witch  transformation  episode  plays  an 
important  part,  e.g.,  that  of  Beauty  and  the  Beast,  in 
which  the  beast  is  a  prince  transformed  into  a  snake,'- 
frog,  or  monster  by  sorcery,  and  some  tales  of  the 
Youngest  Son  type,  in  which  the  elder  brothers  are 
transformed  and  the  youngest  forces  the  enchanter  to 
break  the  spell.  These  will  be  cited  in  later  chapters. 
Here  we  shall  notice  the  True  Wife  cycle. 

In  this  cycle  a  king's  wife  is  changed  during  child- 
birth into  an  animal  by  some  woman  jealous  of  her 
position,  who  takes  her  place.  Night  by  night 
she  comes  to  the  palace  door,  and  says  that  if  the 
king  does  not  save  her  within  a  certain  time  she  will 
have  to  keep  her  animal  form  all  her  life.  This  is 
reported  to  the  king,  who  keeps  watch  and  hears  it  for 
himself  He  rushes  out  and  takes  his  true  wife  in  his 
arms,  when  at  once  the  spell  is  broken  and  she  resumes 
her  natural  form.  Breton,  German,  and  Russian 
variants  make  the  queen's  stepmother  change  her 
into  a  bird ;  in  the  Swedish  the  false  queen's  mother 
does  so,  but  in  all  the  enchantress's  daughter  takes 

1  It  is  sufficient  to  refer  to  Ovid's  Metamorphoses  as  the  literary 
presentation  of  such  myths  or  folk-tales. 

2  Odyssey,   x.       See    Gerland,    Alt.    Griesch.    Marchen    in    der 
Odysee. 


THE  TRUE  WIFE  151 

the  queen's  place. ^  A  Greek  variant  makes  the 
sisters  of  the  queen  turn  her  into  a  bird,  one  of  them 
taking"  her  place ;  the  sorceress  herself  is  the  impostor, 
after  changing-  the  queen  into  a  dove,  a  fawn,  a  fish, 
and  a  turtle-dove,  in  variants  from  Catalonia,  Lorraine, 
Asia  Minor,  and  Italy.^  A  Hindu  version  departs 
from  the  usual  type,  but  is  clearly  connected  with  it. 
A  queen,  after  her  death,  is  transformed  into  a  bird  by 
a  god  who  sticks  a  pin  in  her  head.  She  reappears  in 
the  palace,  and  the  king  puts  her  in  a  cage.  One  day 
while  he  is  fondling  the  bird  the  pin  comes  out,  and  at 
once  she  takes  her  human  shape  again.^  Placing  a  pin 
in  the  head  is  a  common  way  of  effecting  transforma- 
tion, and  occurs  in  the  Greek  and  Breton  variants 
just  cited.  There  are  several  Swedish  versions,  in 
which  the  queen  changes  her  form  repeatedly  through 
witchery  after  her  husband  catches  her.  He  still 
keeps  her  in  his  arms,  and  thus  exhausts  the  power  of 
the  sorceress.*  These  have  some  analogy  to  tales  of 
the  Transformation  Combat  cycle. 

Instances  of  witch-transformation  occur  in  the 
folk-tales  of  all  lands.  Akin  to  the  stories  just  cited 
is  the  Celtic  story  of  Ossian's  mother,  which  occurs 
both  as  a  folk-tale  and  also  as  part  of  the  Ossianic 

1  Luzel,  Legendes^  ii.  303  ;  Grimm,  No.  135  ;  Ralston,  R.F.T,^ 
p.  184  ;  Cavallius,  p.  142. 

2  Legrand,  p.  140 ;  Rondallayre^  iii.  149  ;  Cosquin,  i.  232  ;  Hahn, 
No.  49  ;  Comparetti,  No.  68. 

3  Miss  Stokes,  No.  2. 

*  Thorpe,  Y.T.S.^  p.  61  seq.  Sometimes  the  hero's  sweetheart  is 
personated  by  a  gipsy,  who  changes  her  into  a  golden  duck  which 
follows  her  everywhere,  and  at  last  exposes  her  villainy.  There  are 
Magyar,  Portuguese,  and  Indian  versions  of  this  tale.  Jones,  p.  214  ; 
Portuguese  Folk-Tales^  p.  12  ;  Old  Deccan  Days^  pp.  85,  223  ;  Miss 
Stokes,  p.  284.  The  English  story  of  the  Laidly  Worm  of  Spindle- 
stone  Heugh  has  some  analogy  to  these  stories.  The  witch  step- 
mother changes  a  girl  into  a  "  laidly  worm  "  until  her  absent  brother, 
Childe  Wynd,  will  kiss  her  thrice.  In  the  sequel  he  does  so,  and  she 
recovers  her  shape.  The  witch  is  then  changed  to  a  toad.  Jacobs, 
p.  183.  Cf.  Child,  English  and  Scottish  Ballads^  i.  207  ;  and  infra^ 
p.  254. 


152  TRANSFORMATION 

sagfa.  His  father  Fingal  had  a  fairy  sweetheart  whom 
he  forsook,  and  then  married  a  mortal  woman.  The 
fairy  changed  her  into  a  hind,  in  which  form  she  gave 
birth  to  the  poet.  Long-  after,  while  hunting,  he  was 
about  to  throw  his  spear  at  a  hind  when  it  bade  him 
forbear,  because  it  was  his  mother.  He  went  with  her 
into  a  hill,  where  she  became  a  beautiful  woman. 
When  he  left  her  he  could  see  no  sign  of  the  door 
which  had  closed  upon  him,  and  though  it  seemed 
only  three  days  that  he  had  spent  with  her,  he  had 
been  in  the  hill  for  three  years.  Possibly  if  we  had 
the  full  version  of  this  tale  we  should  find  that  the 
fairy  took  the  true  wife's  place.  ^ 

In  a  Basque  story,  seven  brothers  forbid  their 
sister  ever  to  go  near  a  certain  house.  She  did  so, 
and  obtained  from  the  witch  who  lived  there  certain 
herbs  which  she  was  to  put  in  her  brothers'  foot-bath  to 
relieve  their  fatigue.  By  the  herbs  they  were  changed 
into  cows.  Later  she  married  a  prince,  on  condition 
that  he  would  never  kill  the  cows.  In  his  absence 
she  was  thrown  down  a  precipice  by  the  witch,  who 
took  her  place  and  told  the  king  that  in  order  to  cure 
her  sufferings  he  must  kill  the  cows.  He  is  amazed, 
but  sends  a  servant  to  do  so.  The  servant  hears  the 
true  wife's  voice,  bemoaning  her  own  and  her  brothers' 
fate.  Then  the  king  rescued  his  wife,  and  compelled 
the  witch  to  give  back  the  brothers  their  true  shape, 
afterwards  burning  her  in  an  oven.^  In  another 
Basque  story  the  girl  has  come  to  seek  her  brothers, 
and  she  herself  forces  the  witch  to  disenchant  them.^ 
Here  we  are  on  the  track  of  another  cycle,  in  which  a 
man's  sons  are  cursed  by  him  and  become  birds  when 
their  little  sister  is  born.     On  her  falls  the  task  of 

^  Carmichael,  Carmina  Gaedelica^  ii.  22. 

2  Webster,  p.  187.  Cf.  Old  Deccan  Days,  p.  59;  "Truth's 
Triumph,"  and  the  story  of  "The  Old  Man  and  the  Hind"  in  the 
Arabian  Nights. 

2  Webster,  p.  52. 


THE  NEREID  QUEEN  153 

recovering  them  and  finding  means  of  restoring  their 
true  form  to  them.^  Grimm's  story  of  the  Twelve 
Brothers  resembles  this,  but  the  boys  escape  from 
their  father ;  their  sister  goes  in  search  of  them,  and 
it  is  by  her  going  near  the  witch's  house  that 
their  transformation  results,  as  in  the  first  Basque 
story.  ^ 

Some  stories  of  the  True  Bride  form  a  class  by 
themselves.  A  Nereid  queen,  in  a  Greek  story, 
emerged  from  a  citron  and  was  married  by  the  hero. 
Then  a  negress  threw  her  into  a  well,  and  she  was 
changed  into  an  eel.  The  negress  took  her  place,  and 
had  the  eel  killed  and  eaten.  Its  bones,  thrown  into 
the  garden,  became  a  lemon  tree,  which,  by  the 
negress's  orders,  was  lopped  of  its  branches.  The 
stump  spoke  to  an  old  man  who  had  taken  it  for 
firewood,  and  bade  him  strike  above  and  below. 
When  he  had  done  so,  the  Nereid  emerged  safe  and 
sound,  and  was  restored  to  her  husband.^  This 
version  has  borrowed  some  of  the  incidents  of  the 
Two  Brothers  cycle.  Other  parallels  differ.  The 
wife  is  changed  into  a  dove  by  the  enchantress 
who  sticks  a  pin  into  her  head.  The  bird  sings  a  song 
which  arouses  suspicion,  is  captured,  and  the  pin  with- 
drawn in  spite  of  the  witch's  protestations,  when  the 
fraud  is  discovered.* 

Transformation  for  various  purposes,  by  witch, 
fairy,  medicine-man,  etc.,  occurs  sporadically  in  the 
folk-tales  of  all  lands.     Sometimes  it  is  done  by  way 

^  Pentamerone^  iv.  8.  Thorpe,  Y.T.S.^  p.  459.  Here  a  mother 
transforms  her  seven  sons  into  ravens,  because  they  are  so  much 
trouble. 

2  Cf.  Grimm's  story  of  the  Six  Swans,  in  which  the  stepmother 
changes  the  sons  into  swans.  The  sister  prepares  to  disenchant  them, 
but  meanwhile  marries.  The  king's  stepmother  steals  her  children, 
and  the  poor  girl  is  about  to  be  executed,  when  the  s]rt^ans  save  her, 
and  she  disenchants  them.  ( 

-  Garnett,  ii.  20. 

*  Chili  {Spanish),  F.L.J. ,  iii.  290.      Italian,  Crane,  pp.  338,  342. 


154  TRANSFORMATION 

of  punishment,  recalling-  the  classical  instances  in 
which  the  divinities  changed  the  transgressor  into 
animal  form.  An  Icelandic  story  is  a  good  instance. 
A  man  wrecked  at  sea  was  saved  by  fairies,  one  of 
whom  became  his  lover.  After  he  had  returned  to  his 
own  land,  a  beautiful  child  was  found  in  the  church 
porch,  but  in  spite  of  its  likeness  to  him  he  disowned 
it.  Thereupon  a  fair  woman  appeared  and  told  him 
that  for  his  ingratitude  he  would  be  changed  into  a 
whale,  the  terror  of  the  northern  seas.  So  in  an  Aino 
tale  a  man  was  changed  into  a  fox  by  a  divinity 
because  he  was  a  liar  and  a  thief.  Australian  stories 
show  the  danger  of  jesting  at  sacred  things.  At  the 
famous  Bora  of  Byamee,  the  Mahthis  chattered  and 
jested  while  the  Wirreemin  or  medicine-men  were 
performing  the  sacred  dance.  For  this,  Byamee  (the 
divinity)  changed  them  into  dogs.  A  medicine-man 
changed  some  girls  into  frogs  because  they  mocked 
him.  Their  mother  was  about  to  eat  the  frogs,  when 
she  heard  them  speak  inarticulately  and  gathered  what 
had  happened.  She  offered  the  sorcerer  a  magic  stone 
as  a  condition  of  their  release.  He  agreed,  but  when 
she  went  to  seek  them,  the  girls  had  become  stone 
frogs,  in  which  state  they  remained.^ 

Most  stories  of  witch  enchantment  make  the 
transformation  the  result  of  an  action  which  has 
aroused  the  displeasure  of  the  enchanter.  That  action 
may  be  wrong,  as  in  the  cases  just  cited  ;  more 
frequently  it  is  innocent,  except  from  the  enchanter's 
point  of  view.  An  Esthonian  tale  illustrates  this.  A 
maiden  who  is  said  by  a  witch  to  be  her  own 
daughter,  flees  with  the  prince  her  lover.  The  witch 
sends  a  magic  packet  after  them  which  changes  the 
girl  into  a  water-lily.  In  the  sequel  the  prince 
recovers  her,  but  not  till  he  has  taken  the  form  of  a 

^  Arnason,   i.  65.     Chamberlain,  p.  25.     Parker,   ist  ser.,  p.  97  ; 
ibid.^  2nd  ser.,  p.  79. 


TRANSFORMATION  BY  A  TALISMAN         155 

carp  swimming-  in  the  river  where  the  water-lily  is. 
Together  they  float  down  the  stream  to  a  rowan  tree, 
on  reaching-  which  both  resume  their  true  form.^  Such 
enchantments  are  well  known  to  all  readers  of  the 
Arabian  Nights.  Some  other  Eastern  examples 
may  be  cited.  The  Persian  ''History  of  Nassar" 
tells  how  a  witch  transformed  a  girl  into  a  bitch,  in 
which  form  she  escaped,  but  was  pursued  by  all  the 
dogs  of  the  town  till  she  was  glad  to  return  to  her 
merciless  captor.  A  young  man  in  the  same  History 
was  changed  into  a  bird  by  a  fairy  who  fastened  a 
talisman  round  his  neck.^  Indian,  Persian,  and 
Arabic  fictions  are  full  of  this  species  of  enchantment, 
and  it  only  needs  that  the  talisman  be  removed  for  the 
original  form  to  be  resumed.  In  a  story  from  Kashmir 
a  prince  is  changed  into  a  ram  by  a  witch's  daughter 
tying  a  cord  round  his  neck.  She  is  in  love  with 
him,  and  at  night  removes  the  cord,  w^hen  he  becomes 
a  man.  All  this  time  his  own  wife  sees  the  ram  in 
the  house,  and  only  discovers  the  villainy  after  several 
years.^  A  Burmese  hero  was  changed  into  a  parrot 
in  the  same  way.  A  princess  bought  the  bird,  and  by 
accident  removed  the  thread.  The  youth  stood 
before  her,  and  she  instantly  fell  in  love  with  him.  By 
day  he  was  a  parrot,  by  night  a  man.  Thus  suspicion 
was  averted,  till  her  condition  betrayed  her,  when  she 
publicly  married  the  hero.* 

A  story  from  Guiana  has  some  resemblance  to 
these  tales  of  secret  love,  and  the  coincidence  is  sugges- 
tive of  our  theory  of  the  incidents  of  folk-tales  having 

^  Kirby,  i.  208.  Cf.  p.  257,  where  Elsie,  leaving  the  enchanted 
wood,  is  changed  into  an  eagle.  A  prince  shot  the  eagle  ;  this  broke 
the  charm,  and  Elsie  reappeared  and  was  married  to  the  prince. 

The  magic  packet  has  a  parallel  in  the  "  sending"  of  Icelandic  folk- 
lore, i.e.,  a  ghost  raised  up  by  sorcery  and  sent  against  an  enemy 
(Powell  and  Magnusson,  2nd  ser.,  intro.  Ixxvii.),  and  in  the  Eskimo 
amulet.     See  p.  200  for  references. 

2  Clouston,  E.R.,  p.  29.  ^  Knowles,  p.  71. 

*  Sparkes,  No.  61. 


156  TRANSFORMATION 

been  invented  separately.  A  sorcerer's  daughter 
was  in  love  with  a  hunter,  and  wishing-  to  be  near  him 
always,  asked  her  father  to  change  her  into  a  dog. 
He  gave  her  a  skin  which  made  her  like  a  dog  when 
she  placed  it  on  her  shoulders.  The  hunter  took  this 
dog  along  with  the  others,  but  it  always  returned 
home  before  them,  when  the  hero  found  his  hut 
swept  and  food  prepared.  Next  time  he  watched,  and 
discovered  what  took  place.  He  seized  the  skin  and 
burned  it,  and  then  claimed  the  girl  as  his  wife.  The 
demon  foxes  of  Chinese  and  Japanese  folk-lore  often 
lay  aside  their  skin  in  this  way,  like  the  swan-maidens 
everywhere,  and  marry  a  mortal.^  We  may  compare 
with  this  distant  Guiana  tale  another  from  Romagna. 
A  girl,  betrayed  by  her  lover,  received  a  feather  from 
some  dwarfs  and  was  turned  into  a  swallow.  She 
flew  off  to  her  lover  and  touched  him  with  the  feather, 
when  his  love  for  her  returned  and  she  resumed  her 
human  shape.  Such  stories  show  that  the  power  of 
the  enchanter  may  occasionally  be  used  for  beneficent 
ends.^ 

^  Brett,  p.  176.  For  the  burnt  skin,  cf.  p.  347  infra^  and  for  the  fox 
superstition,  p.  261. 

2  Leland,  E.R.R.^  p.  224.  Petrifaction,  or  transformation  into  stone, 
is  as  universally  believed  in  as  transformation  into  animal  shape.  It  was 
probably  suggested  by  the  fact  that  many  rocks  bear  some  resemblance 
to  human  form,  or  that  fossil  animals  are  replicas  of  their  living  forms 
(showing  that  many  of  primitive  man's  ideas  have  a  certain  basis  in 
fact,  but  usually  the  application  of  the  fact,  or  the  deduction  drawn 
from  it,  is  quite  wrong),  or  from  a  confusion  of  the  monolith  erected  over 
a  grave  with  the  ghost  believed  to  tenant  it  (many  stone  circles  and 
monoliths  are  believed  traditionally  to  be  petrified  men  and  women). 
Usually  the  belief  takes  the  form  that  certain  rocks  or  stones  were 
once  human  beings  who  were  changed  to  stone  as  a  punishment. 
This  is  found  in  Australia  (Mrs  Parker,  p.  50),  N.  America  (Petitot, 
p.  166),  Kashmir  (Knowles,  p.  192),  Babylonia  (Sayce,  F.LJ.,  i.  18), 
Samoa  (Turner,  p.  45),  Borneo  (St  John,  i.  229),  Africa  (Dennett,  p.  5), 
Peru  (see  p.  353),  and  in  all  European  countries  (Berenger-Fdraud, 
ii.  371  seq.).  Ovid's  Metamorphoses  gives  many  classical  instances. 
In  folk-tales  the  power  of  petrifaction  is  usually  in  the  hands  of  witch 
or  wizard  (see  pp.  55,  382).     Usually  a  touch  with  a  wand,  binding  the 


TRANSFORMATION  BY  BATHING  157 

(2)  Transformation  by  bathing  in  certain  waters 
occurs  frequently  in  later  Eastern  fiction,  but  it  has 
an  earlier  folk-lore  origin,  since  it  occurs  sporadically 
in  European  and  savage  folk-tales.  Tajul-Muluk, 
the  hero  of  The  Rose  of  Bakawali,  overhears  a  maina 
telling  her  young  ones  how  a  man  may  obtain  certain 
treasures,  and  profiting  by  what  he  has  heard,  he 
goes  to  a  lake,  where  he  is  attacked  by  a  dragon. 
Leaping  into  the  water  to  save  himself,  he  finds  that 
he  is  changed  into  a  raven.  Having  eaten  of  the 
fruit  of  a  certain  tree,  he  recovers  his  shape.  Later 
on  in  the  story  he  bathes  in  another  lake,  and  is 
changed  into  a  woman  ;  the  water  of  a  third  turns 
him  into  an  Abyssinian,  and  of  a  fourth  into  his 
original  form.^  Such  incidents,  each  involving  the 
hero  in  a  new  series  of  adventures,  are  obviously  the 
literary  form  of  more  primitive  conceptions.  In  the 
Indian  Kathakoga,  animals  plunging  into  a  certain 
bathing-place  become  men,  and  men  become  gods.'- 
The  same  conception,  though  unusual  in  Western 
folk-tales,  is  found  in  an  Epirote  version  of  a  tale 
which  will  be  cited  in  the  chapter  dealing  with  Beast- 
marriage.  When  the  bird  flies  to  the  princess  who 
loves  him,  she  puts  water  in  a  cup  and  a  ring  in  the 
water;    in    this   the   bird  bathes  and  takes  human 

victim  with  the  witch's  hair,  or  the  repeating  of  a  spell,  suffices.  Cf. 
Sebillot,  i.  124  ;  Legrand,  p.  161  ;  Auning,  p.  79  ;  Leskien,  p.  547  ; 
Rev.  Trad.  Pop.^  ii.  359  ;  Riviere,  p.  193  ;  Burton,  i.  64  ;  Miss  Frere, 
pp.  10,  55,  75  ;  Clouston,  E.R.^  pp.  320,  469  ;  Mijatovich,  p.  114.  In 
Scandinavian  belief  giants  and  trolls  are  petrified  if  surprised  by  the 
dawn — Thorpe,  i.  8.  Change  of  sex  also  appears  in  folk-tales.  In 
Eastern  stories  it  is  usually  effected  by  a  jinn  or  rakshasi  (Clouston, 
E.R.^  p.  279;  P.T.^  i.  446;  Dubois,  Paiichatantra^  p.  15);  in  one 
case  a  woman  becomes  a  man  by  putting  a  herb  in  her  ear  (Tawney, 
pp.  no,  114).  For  European  instances,  cf.  Dozon,  p.  109;  Hahn, 
No.  58  ;  Ovid,  Metamor.^  ix.  793.  Montaigne  speaks  of  the  subject 
(Essays,  book  i.  cap.  20),  and  cites  a  case  which  was  said  to  have 
occurred  in  his  own  day  ! 

'  Clouston,  E.R..,  p.  298  seq. 

^  Tawney,  p.  50. 


158  TRANSFORMATION 

form.^  An  Algonquin  tale  supplies  a  savage  parallel 
to  the  Persian  story.  Two  girls  used  to  absent 
themselves  from  their  village  one  day  in  the  week, 
and  swim  all  day  in  a  certain  lake.  Once  an  Indian 
spied  them  and  saw  them  going  into  and  coming  out 
of  the  water,  but  as  he  watched  they  became  longer 
and  longer,  and  were  turned  into  snakes.  And  having 
been  seen  by  a  man,  they  had  to  keep  their  serpent 
form.  A  variant  describes  the  girls  as  becoming 
snakes  from  below  the  waist.  Here,  however,  as  in 
the  Melusina  stories,  the  girls  may  not  have  been 
really  human,  and  contact  with  their  native  element 
may  have  restored  their  true  form.^ 

Transformation  by  eating"  or  drinking  some  par- 
ticular substance  has  a  wider  occurrence  in  folk-tales, 
and  is  found  as  the  main  incident  of  a  well-marked 
story  cycle,  of  which  the  following  is  the  Roman 
version.  A  youth  was  robbed  of  his  magic  treasures 
by  a  girl  who,  by  using  one  of  them,  left  him  alone  on 
a  high  mountain.  There,  dying  of  hunger,  he  ate 
some  green  stuff,  and  was  transformed  into  an  ass. 
Having  descended  the  mountain,  he  ate  another  plant 
and  found  himself  a  man  once  more.  Collecting  a 
quantity  of  both  plants  he  made  his  way  to  the  girl, 
and  sold  her  some  of  plant  number  one.  She  became 
an  ass  as  soon  as  she  had  eaten  it.  Then  the  hero 
bargained  with  her  for  his  treasures,  giving  her  plant 
number  two  as  soon  as  she  had  returned  them.^ 
Campbell  gives  a  Celtic  version  of  this  tale,  in  which 
a  deer's  head  replaces  that  of  the  eater  of  a  certain 
apple.*  This  is  obviously  a  later  idea,  as  also  are  the 
numerous  versions,  European  and  Eastern,  in  which 
an  enormous  nose  or  spreading  horns  result  from 
eating  a  certain    herb.^      Bohemian,   German,   and 

1  Garnett,  ii.  437.  2  Leland,  A.L.^  pp.  268,  270. 

3  Busk,  p.  146.  4  Campbell,  i.  181. 

^  See  Cosquin,    i.    121;  Crane,   p.    119;    Kirby,   i.    306;    Gesfa 
Romanorum^  cap.  cxx. 


TRANSFORMATION  BY  DRINKING  159 

Breton  versions  of  the  Roman  story  exist.  In  a 
Kashmir  parallel  the  virtues  of  the  leaves  of  two  trees 
are  discovered  by  the  hero's  overhearing-  the  conversa- 
tion of  two  birds.  He  gives  pellets  of  the  leaves  of 
the  first  tree  to  his  paramour,  who  has  stolen  his 
treasures,  and  she  becomes  an  ass,  and  when  she  has 
been  sufficiently  humiliated,  he  restores  her  to  her 
true  shape.  There  are  also  several  Indian,  as  well  as 
Bilochi  and  Mongol  versions.^ 

Transformation  by  drinking  occurs  in  those  stories 
of  the  True  Bride  cycle,  in  which  the  boy  and  girl 
are  driven  from  home.  They  had  not  gone  far,  says 
a  Magyar  version,  before  the  boy  got  very  thirsty. 
He  wanted  to  drink  at  various  places,  from  water 
lying  in  a  cartrut,  a  bear's  and  a  wolfs  footprints, 
but  was  forbidden  by  his  sister,  lest  he  should  be 
turned  into  a  cartwheel,  a  bear,  or  a  wolf.  But  he 
could  hold  out  no  longer,  and  drank  water  lying  in  a 
roebuck's  footprint,  when  he  at  once  turned  into  a 
roebuck.  In  a  Sicilian  version  he  becomes  a  calf  in 
the  same  way,  in  German  and  Greek  versions  a 
fawn  through  drinking  of  a  brook.  The  German 
story  expressly  says  that  the  witch-stepmother  had 
enchanted  all  the  waters  in  the  forest,  so  that  whoever 
drank  of  them  would  take  animal  form.^  We  may 
suppose  that  this  proviso  occurred  originally  in  all 
such  tales.  A  Basque  version  of  the  Dragon-slaying 
cycle  relates  that  after  marrying  the  princess  whom 
he  had  delivered,  the  hero  fell  into  the  hands  of  a 
witch,  who  invited  him  to  eat,  and  at  the  first  mouth- 
ful he  was  changed  into  a  monster.  This  also 
happened  to  his  brother,  but  both  were  disenchanted 

1  Waldau,  p.  51.  Grimm,  No.  122.  Sebillot,  No.  14.  F.L.J.,  iv. 
24.  Knowles,  p.  90  ;  Tawney,  p.  125  (changed  into  a  camel).  Ind. 
Ant,  xiv.  109.     Bilochi  Stones,  No.  13. 

2  Jones,  p.  220.  The  brother  is  disenchanted  by  his  sister  who  rubs 
him  with  ointment  out  of  the  stomach  of  the  whale  which  swallowed 
her  when  she  was  thrown  into  the  sea.  Pitre,  No.  283.  Grimm, 
"Little  Brother  and  Sister."     Hahn,  No.  i. 


160  TRANSFORMATION 

later  by  the  youngest  brother's  help.  In  parallel  stories 
the  transformation,  petrifaction,  etc.,  is  accomplished 
in  other  ways.^ 

Savage  parallels,  Red  Indian  and  Eskimo,  present 
the  usual  likeness  to  these  European  folk-tale  in- 
cidents. We  cite  first  a  Pawnee  story.  Two 
brothers  were  lost  in  the  woods.  One  of  them  per- 
sisted in  eating  buffalo  marrow  and  squirrel  flesh,  and 
was  changed  into  a  snake  during  the  night.  But, 
after  this,  he  became  king  of  the  snakes,  and  was 
able  to  help  his  tribe  in  all  their  undertakings.  In  the 
Eskimo  tale  Malaise  lands  at  a  place  where  certain 
enemies  attack  him.  He  is  already  provided  with  the 
reindeer  stockings  of  his  dead  brother,  and  puts  dust 
and  hairs  from  these  stockings  in  their  drinking-vessel, 
and  when  they  drink  they  are  turned  into  reindeer.^ 

(3)  The  power  oi  self-transformation  is  universally 
ascribed  in  folk-belief  to  gods  or  spirits,  sorcerers,  and 
ordinary  human  beings.  To  illustrate  this  fully  a 
separate  volume  would  be  required  ;  we  shall  confine 
ourselves  to  a  few  examples  of  folk-tales  proper  con- 
taining this  incident.  Transformation  of  divinities  or 
spirits  at  will  is  the  common  property  of  Greek, 
Hindu,  Scandinavian,  Celtic,  and  ancient  Egyptian 
mythologies,  to  mention  but  a  few  of  the  higher 
instances.  It  is  only  natural,  then,  that  the  gods  of 
a  lower  culture  will  possess  this  power  even  more 
freely.  The  Polynesian  Maui  turned  himself  into  the 
form  of  a  bird  to  amaze  his  brothers ;  to  escape  the 
dead  guardians  of  Hades  on  his  visit  thither,  he  flew 
past  as  a  pigeon ;  while  by  pulling  at  his  brother-in- 
law's  features  and  limbs  he  changed  him  into  a  dog.^ 
In  a  Guiana  legend  certain  spirits  can  assume  the 
form  of  jaguars,  dogs,  snakes,  etc.     One  of  them  who 

1  Webster,  p.  91.  ^  Grinnell,  p.  171.     Rink,  p.  173. 

3  Clarke,  pp.  39,  50. 


THE  WERWOLF  l6l 

takes  the  form  of  a  frog"  is  enamoured  of  a  youth,  who, 
to  escape  her,  shut  her  up  in  a  tree,  through  a  hole  of 
which  she  escaped  as  a  frog,  and  may  still  be  heard 
croaking  for  her  lover.  ^ 

The  wide  existence  of  the  werwolf  superstition 
may  be  taken  as  a  sufficient  example  of  the  sorcerer's 
power  to  assume  animal  form.  A  wolf  is  the  witch's 
favourite  animal-shape  in  European  folk  -  belief, 
though  other  animal  forms  were  taken ;  a  tiger 
is  favoured  in  India,  in  Malaysia,  and  among 
the  Abipones ;  a  leopard,  hyena,  or  crocodile  in 
Africa ;  a  cat  in  China  and  among  the  Negroes  of 
America ;  a  hare  or  fox  in  China ;  a  jaguar  in  New 
Guinea;  and  among  the  American- Indians,  the 
bear,  fox,  wolf,  owl,  or  snake. '^  Usually,  though  not 
always,  the  animal  most  feared  in  any  country  is  the 
animal  chosen  for  the  witch  disguise.  Wherever  the 
superstition  is  encountered  the  same  sequence  of  ideas 
is  found  ;  the  animal  is  wounded  and  disappears,  and 
soon  after  a  witch  is  found  with  a  corresponding 
wound,  proving  beyond  a  doubt  that  she  was  the 
animal  in  question.    Innumerable  folk- tales,  European, 

^  Brett,  p.  76. 

2  For  the  superstition  see  Nydault,  De  la  Lycanthropie  (Paris, 
1 599) ;  Hertz,  Der  Werwolf.  Among  northern  nations  the  same 
superstition  attached  to  the  bear  (Dasent,  Ixii.).  Other  animals 
which  supplied  the  witch  disguise  in  Europe  were  the  crow,  toad, 
dog,  black  cat,  hare,  and  sometimes  even  a  dolphin  or  whale  (see 
Reuss,  La  Sorciere^  p.  81  ;  Thorpe,  ii.  passim;  Dalyell,  Superstitions 
of  Scotland,  pp.  50,  53,  189  ;  Leland,  E.R.R.,  pp.  113,  221  seq.j  Jones, 
Ixii.  ;  F.L.J.,  i.  53,  354  ;  Rhys,  C.F.,  i.,  p.  294  ;  H.L.,  p.  198 ;  Henderson, 
i66  ;  Hibbert,  p.  599.  For  India,  see  Crooke,  ii.  211  ;  Dalton,  p.  290  ; 
Malaysia,  Skeat,  Malay  Magic,  p.  160  seq.j  Africa,  Burton,  Zan- 
zibar, i.  304  ;  Reade,  p.  419  ;  Dennett,  pp.  5,  10 ;  Du  Chaillu,  Ashango 
Land,  p.  52  ;  Nassau,  200  ;  China,  Dennys,  p.  70  ;  American- Indians, 
Domian,  p.  248  ;  Afnerican  Negroes,  Leland,  E.R.R.,  221  ;  Abipones, 
Dobrizhoffer,  ii.  Tj  ;  New  Guinea,  Brett,  p.  187.  All  those  animal 
forms  were  also  believed  in  these  various  countries  to  be  worn  by 
spirits  and  demons.  The  werwolf  superstition  was  already  known 
to  the  Greeks  and  Romans.  I  have  referred  to  the  subject  in  the 
last  chapter,  p.  455. 

L 


162  TRANSFORMATION 

Indian,  Malaysian,  African,  and  from  Guiana,  with 
these  ideas  occurring  in  a  monotonous  similarity, 
might  be  cited. ^ 

People  who  are  neither  divinities  nor  witches  have 
the  power  of  transformation  in  many  tales.  Some- 
times it  is  given  them  by  friendly  animals  ;  ^  at  other 
times  by  a  wizard,  as  in  a  Malagasy  tale,  i:\ndrianoro 
would  a-wooing  go,  and  advised  by  a  wizard  took  the 
form  of  three  lemons,  then  of  bluish  water  in  the 
middle  of  a  lake,  then  of  a  vegetable  seed.  All  these 
objects  were  avoided  as  suspicious  by  the  three 
maidens  whom  he  would  fain  capture,  but  at  last,  as 
an  ant,  he  leaped  upon  one  of  them  as  she  came  down 
from  the  sky,  and  forced  her  to  become  his  wife.^  But 
frequently  the  hero  or  heroine  is  personally  gifted  with 
the  power  of  shape-shifting,  as  in  the  classical  myths 
of  divine  amours  the  animal  form  is  assumed  to  gain 
access  to  the  presence  of  the  beloved.  One  of  Prior  s 
Danish  Ballads,  and  the  Scots  Earl  of  Mars 
Daughter,  tell  of  a  knight  who,  as  in  the  latter,  says, 

"  I  am  a  doo  the  livelong  day, 
A  sprightly  youth  at  night."  * 

A  Polynesian  story  contains  the  same  idea.  Rupe 
wished  to  visit  his  sister  Ine  across  the  sea,  and 
begged  a  bird  to  carry  him  over.  The  bird  agreed, 
and,  Rupe  entering  it,  flew  across  the  waves,  and  on 
the  shore  changed  into  human  form,  to  his  sister's  joy. 

1  Cf.  Thorpe,  Y.T.S.,  p.  5  ;  Naake,  p.  135  ;  Skeat,  p.  161  ;  for  an 
African  example,  see  p.  163  ;  Brett,  p.  187. 

2  See  p.  239. 

^  F.L.J.,  i.  202. 

*  Prior,  iii.  206  ;  Buchan,  i.  46.  We  may  compare  with  these  the 
Hindu  belief  in  monstrous  rakshasis  who  assume  the  form  of  beautiful 
women  to  gain  the  love  of  men.  See  p.  291.  A  chiefs  wife,  in  a 
Guiana  tale,  has  a  lover  who  takes  the  form  of  a  jaguar  to  swim  across 
the  river  to  her.  The  chief  kills  him,  and  his  wife  goes  off  to  the 
forest  and  founds  a  tribe  of  women.  Day,  passim  j  Brett,  p.  180,  cf. 
another  tale  of  a  lover  in  form  of  a  tapir,  p.  196. 


ROONEY  AND  THE  SEAL  163 

This  is  a  curious  variant  of  the  idea  that  the  animal 
shape  results  from  donning  the  animal's  skin  or 
feathers,  as  in  many  tales  like  the  Dindje  story  of  a 
man  who  found  an  eagrle's  coat,  and  putting-  it  on, 
became  an  eagle. ^  But  frequently  the  transformation 
is  less  mechanical.  At  Inishkeen  is  preserved  the 
skin  of  a  seal,  of  which  the  following-  story  is  told. 
Years  ago,  a  girl  was  betrothed  to  a  "dacent  boy" 
called  Rooney.  One  day  they  were  upset  in  their 
coracle  by  a  squall.  The  girl  sank  in  spite  of 
Rooney's  efforts  to  save  her,  but  as  she  sank  she  told 
him  she  would  become  a  white  seal  and  sing  to  him. 
One  winter  night  Rooney  started  up,  declaring  he 
heard  her  singing,  and  rushed  out.  Next  morning 
he  was  found  on  the  beach  with  a  white  seal  clasped 
to  his  breast.^  Less  beautiful  but  equally  quaint  is 
an  Aino  story,  in  which  a  hunter  pursued  a  herd  of 
deer,  some  of  which  he  slew  with  poisoned  arrows. 
But  the  deer  were  human  beings,  the  enemies  of  his 
tribe,  and  now  they  resumed  their  form  and  continued 
the  fight.  Such  feats  are  common  in  Eskimo  tales, 
one  of  which  describes  a  man  who  turned  himself  into 
a  reindeer  (in  a  variant,  a  hare)  while  dancing,  and 
back  again  into  a  man,  to  amuse  his  friends.  In 
another  story  a  man  fails  in  some  feat,  and  is  so 
ashamed  that  he  turns  into  a  reindeer  until  the  feeling 
of  shame  wears  off.  Similar  powers  are  known  to 
Hottentot  story.  A  man  and  woman  were  travelling, 
when  some  horses  appeared.  The  man  asked  his 
companion  to  turn  herself  into  a  lion  and  kill  one, 
protesting  that  he  would  not  be  afraid  of  the  meta- 
morphosis. Hair  appeared  at  the  back  of  her  neck, 
her  nails  became  claws,  her  features  altered,  and  the 
woman  bounded  off  as  a  lion.  Meanwhile  the  man 
had  climbed  a  tree  in  terror,  nor  would  he  come  down 


1  Gill,  p.  94 ;  Petitot,  p.  56,  cf.  p.  348. 

2  J.A.I.,  ii.  448. 


164  TRANSFORMATION 

until  she  had  reversed  the  process,  which  he  never 
again  asked  her  to  repeat.^ 

(4)  This  idea  of  self-transformation  enters  into  the 
Transformation  Combat  cycle  of  stories.  The  hero 
of  these  stories  is  usually  in  the  power  of  a  sorcerer 
(sometimes  he  has  been  promised  to  him  before  birth), ^ 
whose  magfic  he  learns  and  then  takes  advantage  of 
In  the  Norse  version  the  boy  returns  to  his  father 
and  tells  him  he  will  change  himself  into  a  horse, 
which  the  father  is  to  sell.  When  the  bargain  is 
completed  the  boy  resumes  his  shape  and  comes  home 
again.  This  unparalleled  feat  of  horse-couping  might 
have  been  repeated  ad  infinitum  but  one  day  the  father 
forgot  to  take  off  the  head-stall,  which,  so  long  as  it 
remained  on  him  prevented  Jack  from  retransforming 
himself  He  was  sold  to  Farmer  Weathersky,  none 
other  than  the  sorcerer.  One  day  a  girl  took  off  the 
head-stall ;  Jack  leapt  into  the  water  and  became  a 
fish.  The  sorcerer  pursued  him  as  a  pike.  He 
emerged  as  a  dove,  the  sorcerer  as  a  hawk.  Jack 
flew  into  the  window  of  a  princess,  and  after  taking 
his  own  form  momentarily,  changed  into  a  ring  on 
her  finger.  Meanwhile  the  king  had  become  sick  and 
the  sorcerer  came  in  his  true  shape  to  heal  him, 
asking  this  ring  as  reward.  The  princess  let  it  fall 
into  the  ashes ;  the  sorcerer  turned  into  a  cock  and 
was  about  to  pick  it  up,  when  the  ring  became  a  fox 
and  gobbled  him  up.^  The  series  of  transformations, 
though  occasionally  different,  occurs  in  Danish, 
Albanian,  Greek,  Servian,  Georgian,  Russian, 
German,  and  Kalmuck  versions,  as  well  as  in  a 
Scots  ballad.*    But  as  a   rule   the  ring  (or  flower, 

^  Batchelor,  edit.  i.  314  ;  Rink,  pp.  219,  459 ;  Bleek,  p.  57. 

-  See  p.  430.  3  Dasent,  p.  342. 

4  Thorpe,  Y.T.S.^  p.  364;  Grundtvig,  i.  248;  Dozon,  p.  135; 
Garnet,  ii.  143,  cf.  Hahn,  No.  68  ;  Mijatovich,  pp.  191,  206  ;  Wardrop, 
p.  I  ;  Ralston,  p.  229  ;  Julg,  p.  i  ;  Child,  Eng.  and  Scot  Ballads^ 
pt.  ii.  399,  "  The  Two  Magicians." 


THE  TRANSFORMATION  COMBAT  165 

fruit,  etc.)  changfes  to  grain,  which  the  magician,  as  a 
fowl,  is  about  to  pick  up,  when  it  becomes  a  fox  or 
hawk  and  kills  him.  There  are  many  Eastern 
versions,  of  which  a  Tamil  story  bears  the  closest 
resemblance  to  the  European  stories.  Here  the 
transformations  are,  for  the  hero,  horse,  fish,  buffalo, 
parrot,  which  the  princess  keeps  as  a  pet.  One  night 
the  hero  assumes  his  true  shape  and  warns  the  princess. 
The  sorcerer  appears  as  a  rope-dancer,  and  asks  the 
parrot  as  his  reward.  She,  as  advised,  wrings  its 
neck ;  it  becomes  a  pearl  in  her  necklace.  The 
magician  asks  it ;  she  scatters  the  pearls  on  the 
g-round,  where  they  become  worms,  which  change  into 
a  cat  who  seizes  the  magician  as  a  fowl.  The  king 
now  rushes  in,  and  the  magician  is  reconciled  to  his 
pupil.  ^ 

The  same  conflict  appears  in  other  settings.  The 
story  of  the  second  calender  in  the  Arabian  Nights 
describes  how  the  princess  summoned  the  genie,  who 
had  changed  the  hero  into  a  monkey.  He  appears  as 
a  huge  lion,  which  she  cuts  in  two.  The  head  becomes 
a  scorpion,  the  princess  a  serpent;  both  turn  into 
eagles  ;  then  into  a  cat  and  a  wolf ;  the  cat  becomes  a 
worm,  and  then  a  pomegranate;  the  wolf, . changed 
into  a  cock,  pecks  up  the  seeds.  One  of  them 
becomes  a  fish,  the  cock  pursues  it  as  a  pike ;  both 
resume  their  original  forms,  and  the  genie  is  finally 
vanquished  by  the  princess's  superior  flame-producing 
powers.  The  incident  is  found  in  one  of  the  Gaelic 
tales  of  the  Feinne.  Fair  Chief  is  attacked  by  Tree 
Lion.  Both  change  into  bulls  ;  next  into  asses  ;  lastly 
into  hawks,  when  Fair  Chief  tears  out  the  heart  and 
liver  of  the  other,  and  resumes  his  true  shape.  In 
Welsh  folk-story  it  is  attached  to  the  history  of 
Taliesin.      The  witch  Ceridwen  chased  Gwion,  who 

^  Clouston,  i.  436,  with  other  Eastern  parallels.     For  a  Mongol 
story,  see  Busk,  p.  4. 


166  TRANSFORMATION 

had  mastered  her  magic.  He  became  a  hare,  a  fish, 
a  bird,  a  grain  of  wheat ;  she  a  greyhound,  an  otter, 
a  hawk,  and  a  hen  which  swallowed  the  grain  of 
wheat.  Nine  months  after,  the  witch  gave  birth  to  a 
son,  Taliesin  (none  other  than  Gwion),  whom  she  cast 
into  the  sea.^  Though  such  a  story  as  this  is  some- 
times used  to  prove  the  Celtic  (Druidic)  doctrine  of 
metempsychosis,  it  really  proves  nothing  more  than 
that  a  folk-tale  of  w^ide  occurrence  has  been  grafted 
on  to  a  Celtic  mythological  cycle,  as  in  the  Gaelic 
story  from  Campbell's  collection.  The  same  thing 
has  occurred  in  Hindu  mythology  as  where  it  is  told 
of  Vikramaditya  that  he  cut  an  opponent  into  two ; 
each  half  became  a  new  man.  These  he  cut  into  four ; 
four  men  resulted;  into  eight,  eight  men  appeared. 
Then  Vikramaditya  changed  himself  into  eight  lions, 
which  fell  on  the  men  and  destroyed  them.^  So 
Proteus,  in  Greek  mythology,  was  caught  hold  of  by 
Menelaus  as  he  lay  asleep.  He  changed  himself  into 
a  bearded  lion,  a  snake,  a  pard,  a  boar,  running  water, 
a  tree  ;  still  Menelaus  held  him,  and  resuming  his  true 
form  he  submitted  to  answer  the  hero's  questions.^ 
But  when  we  find  such  a  story  among  the  Red  Indians, 
we  see  how  little  entitled  we  are  to  attach  any 
doctrinal  meaning  to  it  wherever  found.  Over  and 
over  again  the  mythologies  and  sacred  books  of  all 
religions,  Greek,  Hindu,  Japanese,  preserve  folk-tales 
as  part  of  the  history  of  the  gods.  We  must  regard 
them  none  the  less  as  folk-tales  and  nothing  more. 
The  Red  Indian  story  tells  how  Efwa-^ke  changed 
himself  successively  into  a  tree,  a  bear,  an  elan,  a 
castor,  and  a  corpse,  to  deceive  his  enemies.* 

1  Campbell,  ii.  424  ;  Lady  Guest,  Mabinogion^  iii.  358. 

2  Busk,  p.  289. 

3  Odyssey^  iv.  400,  450  seq.     Cf.  p.  24  for  the  same  idea  in  the  True 
Bride  cycle. 

*  Petitot,  223.    Benfey  explains  the  origin  of  the  Transformation 
Combat  by  disputes  between  Buddhists  and  Brahmans. 


THE  TRANSFORMED  FUGITIVES  167 

(5)  Another  class  of  Transformation  incidents  is 
that  in  which  the  hero  has  fallen  into  the  hands  of  an 
ogre,  witch,  etc.  (usually  by  the  rash  promise  of  his 
father).^  He  is  set  various  tasks,  in  which  he  is 
assisted  by  the  daughter  of  his  captor,  and  then  flees 
with  her.  In  the  pursuit  which  follows,  the  gfirl  (i) 
transforms  her  lover  and  herself,  or  (2)  throws  down 
various  objects  which  are  transformed  into  obstacles 
stopping  the  pursuit.  The  uniformity  in  the  order  of 
the  incidents  of  such  tales,  and  in  the  nature  of  the 
transformations  involved,  as  well  as  in  the  frequent 
occurrence  of  the  subsequent  incident  of  the  hero's 
forgetting  his  lover  through  her  mother's  curse  or 
through  his  breaking  the  girl's  command,  suggests  a 
common  origin  for  all  the  versions,  although  these 
are  found  not  only  in  Europe,  but  in  Africa  and 
Samoa,  while  episodes  of  the  cycles  are  known  to 
the  Red  Indians,  Hottentots,  Tartars,  Ainos,  and 
Malagasy. 

{a)  The  Magyar  story  of  Handsome  Paul  will 
serve  as  a  type  of  the  first  group.  Paul  has  been 
captured  by  a  sorcerer  king,  but  escapes  with  his 
daughter  in  the  shape  of  a  magic  foal.  The  king 
pursues  in  the  form  of  an  eagle ;  the  foal  turns  a 
somersault  and  becomes  a  millet-field,  and  turns 
Paul  into  its  guardian.  When  the  eagle  comes  up 
and  inquires  for  the  fugitives,  Paul  tells  him  they 
passed  when  the  millet  was  sown.  The  eagle  returns 
home,  but  is  reviled  by  his  wife  for  being  so  easily 
taken  in.  Off  he  goes  again ;  the  foal  this  time 
becomes  a  lamb  and  Paul  a  shepherd,  who  tells  the 
eagle  that  the  fugitives  passed  when  the  lamb  was 
born.  The  third  time  the  pair  become  a  chapel  and 
its  ministering  priest,  while  the  eagle  is  told  that  the 
fugitives  passed  when  the  chapel  was  building.  The 
eagle,  on  his  third  return  home,  received  a  terrible 
scolding  from  his  wife,  who  now  set  off  as  a  falcon, 

^  See  p.  419  infra. 


168  TRANSFORMATION 

The  foal  told  Paul  it  would  not  be  so  easy  to  hood- 
wink her  ;  *'  I  will  be  a  lake  of  milk,  and  you  a  gfolden 
duck  swimming  in  it ;  take  care  she  doesn't  catch  you, 
or  we  are  done  for."  The  queen  is  unable  to  do  any- 
thing, but  before  leaving  the  lake  pronounces  a  curse 
on  the  pair,  that  they  should  forget  each  other  alto- 
gether. At  sunset  this  curse  fulfils  itself  They  take 
service  in  a  king's  house,  where  sometime  after  they 
both  dream  that  the  sorcerer  king  and  queen  are 
dead.  This  brings  everything  to  their  recollec- 
tion, and  next  time  they  meet  they  recognise  each 
other.  ^ 

In  some  variants  the  couple  escape  on  horseback, 
and  the  horse  is  also  transformed  ;  in  others  nothing 
is  said  of  any  horse ;  the  Magyar  version  links  the 
two  together,  for  in  it  the  heroine  is  the  horse  herself 
Of  the  former  class  there  are  Breton,  Portuguese, 
Russian,  and  Polish  versions.  The  Breton  has  this 
series  of  tranformations — horse,  hero,  and  maiden, 
into  garden,  gardener,  and  pear-tree  ;  then  into  church, 
priest,  and  altar  ;  lastly  into  river,  boat,  and  boatman. 
The  Portuguese  adds  still  more  to  the  complexity ;  in 
it  there  are  two  horses  which  are  turned  into  earth, 
the  harness  into  a  garden,  the  girl  into  a  lettuce,  and 
the  hero  into  the  gardener;  next  into  hermitage, 
altar,  statue  of  saint,  and  priest ;  third,  into  sea,  boat, 
boatman,  and  fish.  The  Russian  series  are^ — horses 
into  well,  girl  into  bowl,  prince  into  old  man ;  in  the 
second,  nothing  is  said  as  to  the  horses,  but  the  girl 
becomes  a  ruined  church  and  the  hero  an  aged  priest ; 
lastly,  the  horses  become  a  river  of  honey,  the  girl  a 
duck,  and  the  hero  a  drake.  In  the  Polish  version 
Bony's  daughter  changes  the  horse  into  a  raven,  her- 
self into  a  river,  the  prince  into  a  bridge,  and  makes 
the  highway  split  into  three  roads.     Next  appears  a 

^  Jones,  p.  32.  For  some  other  instances,  see  p.  418  infra.  The 
twofold  dream  of  the  deaths  of  the  sorcerers  is  a  curious  instance  of 
telepathy  in  folk-tale.     See  p.  43  supra. 


MASTER  RABBIT  169 

g-loomy  forest  with  innumerable  paths,  down  which  a 
horse  with  two  riders  is  hastening,  when  suddenly 
everything-  vanishes.  Lastly  come  bell,  church,  and 
priest  just  outside  Bony's  dominions,  and  he  has  to 
return  empty-handed/ 

Where  the  horse  is  omitted  we  have  as  in  Lor- 
raine, Sicily,  and  Germany,  (i)  tree  and  woman,  or 
garden  and  gardener,  or  thorn-bush  and  rose ;  (2) 
hermitage  and  hermit ;  (3)  fish  and  river  or  pond." 
These  transformations  are  also  found  in  a  Swedish 
version  with  two  ducks  instead  of  the  fish ;  a  Tyro- 
lese  story  has  (i)  garden  and  gardener,  (2)  lake 
and  fisherman,  (3)  church  and  priest ;  while  in 
the  Esthonian  variant  we  have  (i)  stream  and 
fish,  (2)  rose-briar  and  rose,  (3)  puff  of  wind  and 
gnat.^ 

The  same  story  appears  among  the  Croats  and  in 
Iceland,  while  a  version  of  it  is  found  among  the  Red 
Indians,  but  in  a  different  setting.  Master  Rabbit 
incurred  the  wrath  of  Lusifee,  the  wild  cat,  who 
hunted  him  down.  Rabbit  stuck  up  a  twig  and 
changed  it  into  a  wigwam,  and  himself  into  an  old 
man  who  entertained  Lusifee  all  night.  Next  morn- 
ing when  Lusifee  woke,  all  was  *'  gas  and  gaiters  ''■ — he 
was  lying  on  the  snow,  and  nothing  was  to  be  seen. 
Off  he  went  again,  and  came  up  to  a  village  full  of 
people,  and  a  church  with  service  going  on.  The 
chief  lodged  him  for  the  night,  but  when  he  woke  he 
found  himself  in  a  swamp.  A  third  time  he  was 
deceived,  and  last  of  all  Rabbit  threw  a  chip  into  a 
lake ;  it  became  a  ship  with  the  hero  as  captain 
standing  on  the  deck.  Lusifee  jumped  into  the  lake, 
when  the  captain  gave  the  order  to  fire;   the  shot 

^  Sebillot,  i.  No.  13.     Coelho,  No.  14.    F.L.J.^  ii.  15. 

■^  Cosquin,  i.  103.     Gonzenbach,  No.  54.     Grimm,  p.  113. 

3  Thorpe,  Y.T.S.^  p.  222.  Schneller,  No.  27.  Kirby,  i.  152. 
Thorpe  gives  many  Swedish  versions,  all  of  them  interesting.  The 
pursuer  is  usually  a  mermaid,  to  whom  the  hero  has  been  promised. 


1 70  TRANSFORMATION 

was  really  caused  by  night-hawks  swooping-  down 
with  a  noise  like  a  volley,  but  it  so  frightened 
Lusifee  that  he  swam  ashore  and  fled.  Mr 
Leland,  while  admitting  the  church  and  ship  inci- 
dents to  be  borrowed,  maintains  that  the  rest 
is  pure  Indian  and  of  ancient  date.^  We  shall 
meet  with  another  American- Indian  pursuit  tale 
presently. 

A  Siberian  Tartar  story  while  containing  the 
central  incident  also  lacks  the  usual  introduction,  etc. 
Ai  Tolysy,  having  stolen  a  young  girl,  was  pursued 
by  her  three  brothers,  whereupon  she  turned  his  horse 
into  a  poplar,  and  Ai  Tolysy  and  herself  into  crows, 
which  watched  the  brothers  careering  past.  On  such 
a  story  as  this  we  may  conceive  the  original  version  of 
the  cycle  to  have  been  built  up.^  Compare  now  a 
Hottentot  story,  in  which  some  girls  are  enticed  away 
by  men  who  intend  to  kill  them.  One  of  them 
escaped  with  her  sister ;  they  were  pursued,  but  hid 
themselves.  Later,  they  were  discovered  and  again 
pursued,  when  they  turned  themselves  into  trees, 
while  the  beads  they  wore  became  gum  on  the  trees. 
The  men  ate  of  it  and  fell  asleep,  when  the  girls 
smeared  it  on  their  eyes  and  made  good  their  escape.^ 
The  central  idea  of  our  cycle — transformation  follow- 
ing on  pursuit — is  thus  found  at  a  savage  level  of 
culture,  proving  whence  it  was  originally  derived. 
Among  the  stories  of  this  cycle  it  should  be  noted 
that  when  the  lake  or  river  transformation  occurs  last, 
the  pursuer  begins  to  drink  it  up  till  he  or  she  bursts. 
In  all,  the  ogre  is  stupid,  but  his  wife  is  more  alert, 
and  sees  through  the  disguises.  She  either  accom- 
panies her  husband  in  the  last  pursuit  or  goes 
herself  We  may  see  in  her  superior  cleverness  the 
dim  memory  of  the  time  when  female  ability  led  the 

1  Krauss,   i.   48.     Arnason,  p.  380.      Leland,  A.L.^  p.  212,     For 
another  Red  Indian  story,  cf.  Legends  of  the  Wigwam,  p.  61. 

2  Radloff.  ii.  303.  ^  Bleek,  p.  81, 


THE  TRANSFORMED  OBJECTS  171 

van  of  primitive  civilisation.^  Lastly,  the  incident  of 
the  hero  forgetting-  the  heroine,  which  appears  as  the 
result  of  a  curse  in  the  Magyar  version,  is  not  a 
necessary  part  of  this  cycle,  as  many  versions  lack  it ; 
while  frequently  the  curse  is  omitted,  and  the  heroine 
warns  the  hero  not  to  kiss  anyone  on  entering  his 
home.  He  does  so,  and  at  once  forgets  her,  and  she 
is  only  restored  to  him  after  a  long  time  of  trial  and 
waiting.^ 

{d)  Stories  of  the  transformation  of  objects  divide 
themselves  into  several  groups,  of  which  the  first 
resembles  some  of  those  cited  already.  The  hero 
escapes  with  a  witch's  or  ogre's  daughter.  When  the 
pursuit  begins,  she  bids  him  throw  down  certain 
objects  which  she  sometimes  produces  from  the 
horse's  ears,  or,  in  some  versions,  the  horse  itself 
supplies  them.^  In  a  Magyar  story  these  objects  are 
a  comb,  a  brush,  and  a  horse-rug,  which  all  change 
into  a  dense  forest,  impeding  the  witch.  She  takes 
the  shape  of  a  pigeon ;  the  pony  becomes  a  vulture 
and  tears  her  to  pieces.  The  objects  in  a  Gaelic  tale 
are  a  sprig  of  sloe,  a  piece  of  stone,  and  a  bladder  of 
water,  which  become  a  forest,  a  rocky  barrier,  and  a 
loch,  in  which  last  the  giant  is  drowned.  In  a 
Basque  story  the  heroine,  after  leaving  her  spittle 
behind  to  speak  in  her  voice  and  so  deceive  her 
father,  throws  up  her  comb  thrice  and  produces  a 


1  Cf.  Pearson,  ii.  48,  etc. 

^  Mr  Lang  has  an  interesting  paper  on  the  whole  story — 
tasks,  transformation,  and  forgotten  lover — in  Custom  and  Myth, 
p.  64. 

^  The  best  instance  is  the  Norse  "  Master-maid."  Drops  of  blood 
from  her  finger  deceive  her  father  for  a  time.  Then  she  drops  the 
magical  objects  which  delay  pursuit.  Then  follows  the  oblivion  incident 
and  her  restoration  to  her  lover — Dasent,  p.  62.  In  this  connection  the 
group  of  Tabu  stories,  in  which  a  friendly  horse  assists  the  tabu- 
breaker  to  escape,  and  advises  him  to  take  certain  objects  which 
afterwards  bar  pursuit  in  the  usual  way,  should  be  noted.  They  are 
discussed  in  chap,  xi.,  p.  310. 


172  TRANSFORMATION 

hedg-e,  fog",  hail,  and  storm,  and  a  river  ;  while  in 
an  Irish  version  the  daughter  of  Grey  Norris  throws 
its  puppies  to  the  dog"  he  sends  after  her  lover 
and  herself,  then  some  drops  of  water  become  a 
sea,  a  needle,  and  a  forest  of  iron,  which  stopped  all 
further  pursuit. 

Without  referring  to  any  of  the  other  European 
versions,  I  shall  note  Basuto,  Kafir,  and  Aino  tales 
in  which  the  incident  occurs.  A  Basuto  woman  sent 
her  husband  to  obtain  for  her  the  liver  of  a  nyamat- 
sane — a  fabulous  animal.  Having  killed  one  of  them, 
he  escaped  from  their  village  with  the  liver  and  a 
brilliant  stone  which  he  picked  up  in  the  hut. 
Presently  the  nyamatsanes  pursued  him,  and  taking" 
the  stone  he  threw  it  to  the  ground  when  it  became  a 
precipitous  rock,  on  whose  top  he  seated  himself  The 
animals  tried  in  vain  to  climb  it,  and  by  night  the 
man  escaped,  though  we  are  not  told  how  he  reduced 
the  rock  to  its  pebble  form.  Several  times  in  suc- 
cession he  repeated  the  process,  and  at  last  arrived 
safely  at  his  village.  In  the  Kafir  tale,  Sikulume 
goes  off  with  a  chiefs  daughter,  who  takes  with  her 
an  ^^^,  a  milk-sack,  a  pot,  and  a  smooth  stone,  which 
become  a  mist,  a  sheet  of  water,  darkness,  and  a 
precipice.  This  last  the  father  cannot  climb,  and  the 
pair,  like  Christian,  go  on  their  way  and  see  him  no 
more.  The  Aino  story  tells  how  a  ''divine  stranger  " 
stole  his  treasures  and  his  sister  from  Okikurumi,  the 
Aino  culture-hero.  Here  no  object  was  thrown  down, 
but  the  girl  made  a  mountain  in  the  midst  of  the  sea, 
the  sight  of  which  sent  Okikurumi  home  dispirited. 
A  story  from  the  Japanese  Ko-ji-ki  may  be  cited  at 
this  stage.  The  divinity  the  Male  Who  Invites 
went  to  Hades  to  rescue  his  dead  consort.  There, 
however,  his  impatience  ruined  all,  and  he  had  to  flee, 
pursued  by  the  Ugly  Female  of  Hades.  First,  he 
threw  down  his  head-dress,  which  turned  into  grapes  ; 
these  the  hag-  stayed  to  eat ;  next  his  comb  turned 


A  SAMOAN  INSTANCE  173 

into  bamboo-sprouts,  which  also  delayed  her,  and 
thus  he  made  good  his  escape.^ 

The  next  group  belongs  to  the  Forbidden  Chamber 
cycle.  The  hero,  who  has  broken  the  command  of 
his  captor,  or  of  his  father,  usually  finds  a  horse  in 
the  chamber,  on  whose  back  he  escapes.  In  all  the 
stories  of  this  group  the  horse  advises  the  hero  to  take 
certain  objects  from  his  captor's  house,  or  else  pro- 
duces them  when  the  pursuit  begins.  These  objects 
transformed  put  an  end  to  the  pursuit.  In  the  Lor- 
raine version  the  prince,  mounted  on  Bayard,  is 
pursued  by  his  father  on  Moreau.  The  horse  gives 
him  a  sponge,  telling  him  to  throw  it  as  high  and  as 
far  as  he  can.  It  becomes  a  vast  forest,  through 
which  Moreau  bursts.  A  curry-comb  becomes  a 
huge  river,  but  the  pursuers  cross  it.  Lastly,  a  stone 
becomes  a  mountain  of  razors,  on  which  Moreau 
cuts  his  hoofs,  and  the  king  is  obliged  to  return  home. 
In  the  Tyrolese  version,  a  comb,  a  pair  of  scissors, 
and  a  mirror  become  a  hedge,  a  forest,  and  a  lake ; 
a  Russian  version  has  glove  and  brush  changed  into 
forest  and  range  of  mountains ;  with  the  Lapps, 
sulphur,  a  stone,  and  a  comb  turn  into  a  sheet  of 
water,  a  musket,  and  a  forest.  Greek,  Norse, 
Roumanian,  Basque,  and  Lettish  versions,  the  last 
lacking  the  tabu  incident,  may  be  mentioned.'- 

Strangest  of  all  is  it  to  meet  not  only  with  the 
transformation  episode,  but  with  all  the  other  in- 
cidents of  the  complete  European  folk- tale — tasks, 
flight,  and  transformation,  and  the  forgotten  lover,  in 
a  tale  from  Samoan  mythology.     Siati,  the  hero,  was 


^  Jacottet,  p.  7.  Theal,  p.  81.  Chamberlain,  p.  52.  For  Serbian 
and  Sicilian  stories,  see  Mijatovich,  p.  84 ;  Crane,  p.  7i-  The  latter 
has  the  ogress's  curse  issuing  in  the  lover  forgetting  the  maiden. 
Ko-ji-ki^  p.  36.  For  another  S.  African  pursuit  story,  but  with  a 
rock  which  opens  at  the  magic  song  of  the  fugitive,  see  p.  268. 

2  Cosquin,  i.  134.  Schneller,  No.  20.  Naake,  p.  124.  Hahn, 
p.  45.     Asbjoernsen,  i.  86.     Ralston,  p.  27.     Webster,  p.   iii. 


174  TRANSFORMATION 

set  various  tasks  by  the  gfod  whose  daughter,  Puapae, 
he  had  won.  She  helped  him ;  both  then  fled  from 
her  father.  Puapae  threw  down  her  comb  to  stop  her 
father ;  it  became  a  bush  of  thorns.  A  bottle  of 
earth  became  a  mountain,  and  a  bottle  of  water  a  sea, 
which  drowned  the  god  and  another  daughter.  In 
the  sequel,  when  Siati  remembered  his  forgotten  wife, 
he  fell  dead — an  incident  which  contrasts  with  the 
happy  ending  of  European  tales.  The  existence  of 
this  complete  variant  as  a  divine  myth  suggests  that, 
as  the  story  was  probably  not  independently  evolved, 
it  must  have  reached  Samoa  in  long  past  ages,  how 
we  do  not  know.  We  have  just  seen  a  parallel  case 
of  a  similar  folk-tale  occurring  as  a  Japanese  divine 
myth.^ 

Various  tales  relate  how  the  hero  is  pursued 
because  he  has  plundered  certain  valuable  possessions, 
which,  in  some  cases,  aid  him  in  his  flight.  The 
following  episode  is  related  in  the  Finnish  Kalevala 
and  Kanteletar.  Turo,  son  of  Jumala,  went  to 
recover  the  sun  and  moon,  which  had  been  stolen. 
Arrived  in  the  devil's  country,  he  saw  three  girls 
polishing  these  heavenly  bodies,  which  he  at  once  fled 
with.  Soon  he  found  all  the  devils  on  his  track. 
Taking  a  pebble  from  his  breast,  he  said  a  charm  over 
it ;  it  became  a  mountain.  Then  a  comb  became  a 
forest  of  iron  pines,  which  effectually  barred  the  way. 
The  hero  of  a  Siamese  story  stole  certain  objects 
from  a  yak  or  ogress  who  pursued  him.  One  of  these 
changed  into  countless  sharp  rods ;  another  into  a 
mountain  ;  she  removed  both,  but  having  found  that, 
by  virtue  of  the  third  object,  "seas  between  them 
braid  ha'e  rolled,"  she  left  off  the  pursuit.  A  similar 
story  comes  from  the  Deccan.  In  another  Indian 
and  in  a  Kashmir  story  the  objects  which  are  to  stay 

1  Turner,  p.  102.  See  Mr  Lang's  remarks  on  this  tale,  "swept  like 
a  piece  of  drift-wood  on  to  the  coasts  of  Samoa,"  in  Custom  and 
Myth^  p.  97,  and  in  his  introduction  to  Miss  Cox's  Cinderella, 


A  RED  INDIAN  INSTANCE  175 

the  pursuit  of  the  rakshasa  are  g-iven  to  the  hero  by 
another  rakshasa's  daughter,  who  is  in  love  with  him. 
A  Malagasy  version  tells  of  three  brothers  who  steal 
a  pebble,  a  reed,  a  rush,  and  an  egg"  from  certain 
witches  whom  they  have  sent  to  bring  water  in  a 
sieve.  The  reed  is  planted,  a  forest  springs  up ;  so 
the  rush  produces  a  thicket ;  the  egg  becomes  a  lake. 
Then  the  brothers  stand  on  the  pebble,  which  changes 
to  a  huge  rock.  After  bidding  the  witches  fix  spears 
in  the  ground,  they  pull  them  up  with  ropes,  which 
are  cut  when  the  boy  is  nearly  reached,  and  the 
witches  are  impaled.^ 

With  the  stories  of  this  group  we  may  compare 
one  from  the  mythological  cycle  of  Manabush,  cur- 
rent among  the  Menomini  Indians.  A  boy  who  had 
saved  his  brothers  from  the  Bear  Chief,  whom,  with  his 
bear  servants,  he  had  destroyed,  thought  he  had  better 
go  far  away  lest  the  surviving  bears  should  destroy 
him.  Before  he  left,  his  sister  gave  him  a  stone 
ornament  and  a  handful  of  blue  berries,  which  he  was 
to  use  as  she  instructed  him.  He  had  not  gone  far 
before  he  heard  the  bears  pattering  after  him.  Taking 
one  of  his  magic  arrows  he  shot  it  in  the  air,  saying, 
"When  you  come  down,  there  shall  be  about  you  a 
copse  covering  an  area  as  wide  as  the  range  of  an 
arrow.  There  I  shall  hide  myself*  The  copse 
delayed  the  bears  for  some  time,  but  they  soon  came 
near  the  boy,  who  ran  off  again.  H  e  repeated  the  arrow 
ruse  twice,  and  directed  a  fourth  arrow  to  become  a 
marsh,  from  the  middle  of  which  there  should  be  a 
trail  by  which  he  should  escape.  Through  this  the 
bears  also  struggled,  but  as  they  neared  the  boy  he 
bethought  him  of  the  stone  ornament.  He  threw  it 
up  ;  it  became  a  cliff,  from  the  top  of  which  he  threw 

^  Folk-Lore^  1895,  p.  343  (from  the  Kalevald).  Asiatic  Researches, 
XX.  347.  Frere,  p.  62.  Somadeva^  bk.  vii.  chap.  39,  earth,  water, 
thorns,  and  fire  become  a  mountain,  a  river,  and  a  forest,  which  the 
fire  ignites.     Knowles,  p.  49.     F.L.J. ^  \\.  131.. 


176  TRANSFORMATION 

down  rocks  on  his  pursuers,  killing-  many  of  them. 
Descending-  the  other  side  of  the  cliff,  he  fled,  but  the 
surviving  bears  found  his  trail  and,  faint  yet  pursuing, 
made  after  him.  They  tried  their  utmost  to  capture 
the  boy,  that  they  might  allay  their  hunger,  but  now 
he  threw  down  the  berries,  which  became  bushes 
laden  with  fruit,  which  the  bears  fell  upon  at  once. 
When  they  had  satisfied  their  hunger,  they  concluded 
that  the  boy  was  too  much  of  a  mystery  to  trouble 
themselves  further  about  him.^ 

Sometimes  a  girl,  escaping  from  a  witch,  eludes 
pursuit  in  the  same  way.  Russian  versions  tell  how 
a  cat,  to  whom  she  had  been  kind,  gave  a  maiden  a 
towel  and  a  comb,  which  turned  into  a  river  and  a 
forest,  while  some  inanimate  object  left  behind  by  her 
simulated  her  voice.  A  Samoyede  girl  threw  behind 
her  a  whetstone,  a  gunflint,  and  a  comb,  which  were 
transformed  into  a  river,  a  mountain,  and  a  forest ; 
while  the  Kirghiz  have  a  similar  story  of  a  maiden 
whose  comb  becomes  a  forest  and  her  handglass  a 
huge  lake.^ 

In  other  stories  a  girl  escapes  from  her  ravisher 
with  the  aid  of  certain  heroes.  An  Italian  version  is 
curious.  Seven  brothers  rescued  a  girl  from  a  ghtjl  ; 
Nardo's  spittle  became  a  sea  ;  Cola's  hairpin  a  field  of 
razors  ;  Micco's  bough  a  forest ;  Petrullo  changed 
water  into  a  river ;  Ascadeo  turned  a  stone  into  a 
fortress,  in  which  all  hid  and  from  the  walls  of  which 
Ceccone  blinded  the  ghul  with  an  arrow.  A  similar 
story  is  found  among  the  Kukis  of  South  India. 
Two  youths  carried  off  Kimgori  from  a  wer-tiger, 
and  threw  down  ''seeds  of  fire,"  which  consumed  the 
jungle ;  **  seeds  of  water,"  which  became  a  river  ;  and 

^  Bureau  of  Ethnology^  \^th  Annual  Report^  p.  196.  For  the 
earlier  j,; part  of  this  story,  see  p.  379,  where  I  have  referred  to  the 
genuineness  of  this  series  of  myths,  as  also  on  p.  380. 

2  Ralston,  p.  142.  Cosquin,  i.  152.  Radloff,  iii.  383.  Cf.  a 
Kabyle  version  in  Riviere,  p.  209. 


OTHER  INSTANCES  177 

"seeds  of  thorns,"  which  changed  into  a  thicket. 
The  wer-tig"er  conquered  these  difficulties,  but  finally- 
had  his  head  cut  off  by  one  of  the  heroes.  It  is  not 
impossible  that  the  Italian  tale,  which  occurs  in  the 
Pentamerone,  is  merely  a  literary  form  of  some  such 
tale  as  this  from  Eastern  sources.  But  here  is  a 
Malagasy  parallel.  In  this  story  there  is  no  rescuer, 
but  the  heroine,  Ifara,  is  warned  by  a  mouse  to  take 
with  her  an  egg,  a  broom,  a  cane,  and  a  stone.  She 
leaves  a  plantain-tree  stem  in  bed  to  personate  her. 
Here  the  transformations  are — egg  to  pond,  broom 
to  thicket,  cane  to  forest,  stone  to  precipice,  from 
which  Ifara  throws  the  monster  down,  impaling  him 
on  his  own  spear.  ^ 

Analogous  to  these  pursuit  episodes  are  the 
following.  The  Esthonian  Kalevipoeg  tells  of  a 
sorcerer  who,  when  the  hero  of  the  epic  came  to 
avenge  the  abduction  of  his  mother,  blew  a  handful 
of  feathers  from  him,  uttering  magic  words.  They 
became  an  armed  host.  So  in  the  Finnish  Kalevala 
Lemminkainen  created  a  flock  of  birds  from  feathers, 
to  appease  an  eagle  which  barred  his  way  to  Pohjola, 
or  Hades.  Esthonian  sorcerers  raise  floods  to  sweep 
away  fugitives  or  to  baffle  pursuit,  just  as  in  Red 
Indian  tales  a  magician  from  whom  a  hero  has  rescued 
his  sisters  changes  their  halting-place  each  night  into 
a  precipice,  a  desert  island,  a  marsh,  etc.^ 

It  is  not  improbable  that,  in  the  earliest  form  of 
this  incident  of  the  transformed  objects  there  was  no 
transformation  at  all,  only  some  object  thrown  down 
delayed  the  pursuer,  as  Atalanta  was  delayed  by  the 
golden  apples  of  Hippomenes.  We  have  met  with 
an  incident  of   this  kind  in  the    Menomini    story, 

*  Basile,  Pentamerone  (Burton),  i.  47.  Lewin,  Lushai  Dialect^ 
p.  85.  F.L.J.f  i.  234.  The  formula  of  impaling  the  pursuer  has  been 
already  noted  ;  it  occurs  in  several  Malagasy  tales. 

2  Kirby,  i.  40.  Kalevala^  canto  xxvi.  Kirby,  i.  105,  107,  108. 
Petitot,  pp.  204,  398. 

M 


178  TRANSFORMATION 

combined  with  that  of  the  transformed  objects.  At  a 
later  time  the  inventive  power  of  the  story-teller 
suggested  that  these  objects  should  be  transformed.^ 
In  Angola,  a  woman  pursued  by  her  cannibal 
husband,  threw  down  millet,  sesamum,  and  eleusine, 
which  delayed  her  husband.  He  cried,  **  Pick,  pick 
up !  A  fruit,  don't  waste  it !  "  and  his  thrift  lost  him 
his  wife.  In  a  Kashmir  tale  three  dogs  are  succes- 
sively sent  after  a  king  by  the  jinn  who  has  decoyed 
him.  Advised  by  the  jinn's  wife,  he  throws  down 
certain  biscuits,  which  the  dogs  stay  to  eat.  We  have 
already  seen  how,  in  the  Japanese  myth,  the  hag  stays 
to  eat  the  objects  which  have  been  formed  by  trans- 
formation. It  forms  a  link  between  the  simpler  and 
more  complex  tales.  Elsewhere  the  eating  formula  is 
varied.  Thus  in  a  Maori  legend  which  has  some 
likeness  to  the  Japanese  myth,  the  spirit  of  a  woman 
who  had  died  went  to  Reigna,  the  place  of  the  dead. 
There  she  met  her  father,  who  said  she  must  go  back 
to  her  child  at  home,  as  there  was  no  one  to  nurse  it. 
At  the  same  time  he  cautioned  her  to  eat  no  food 
offered  her  in  Reigna,  else  she  would  never  leave  it.^ 
Acting  on  this  advice,  she  refused  the  food  offered  her 
by  the  spirits,  and  was  thus  able  to  leave  the  spirit 
land.  As  she  did  so,  her  father  gave  her  two  huge 
roots  of  kumara  to  plant  for  her  child.     But  on  her 

^  A  variant  of  this  idea  occurs  in  a  Basuto  tale,  where  a  girl  escapes 
with  her  friends  from  the  chief,  who  had  forced  her  to  be  his  wife. 
Whenever  the  pursuers  draw  near,  a  magic  sheep  dances  before  them, 
and  they  are  forced  in  spite  of  themselves  to  stay  and  watch  it.  Then 
it  suddenly  disappears  and  they  resume  the  pursuit,  only  to  be  stopped 
again  by  it.     Jacottet,  p.  250. 

2  To  eat  the  food  of  the  world  of  the  dead  or  of  fairyland,  invari- 
ably prevents  the  visitor's  escape.  So,  too,  in  the  Babylonian  myth 
(p.  64),  if  the  visitor  to  the  heaven  of  the  gods  eats  their  immortal 
food,  he  becomes  a  god  and  immortal,  as  the  Polynesian  Ina  became 
an  immortal  goddess  by  being  sprinkled  with  the  water  of  immortality, 
in  which  her  divine  husband  renewed  his  youth  every  month  (p.  63). 
Eating  the  food  of  a  strange  tribe  establishes  kinship  with  them,  in 
primitive  belief. 


JASON  AND  MEDEA  179 

way  to  the  upper  air  the  spirits  of  two  infants  tried  to 
retain  her.  She  threw  down  one  of  the  roots,  one  of 
the  infants  remained  to  eat  it.  The  other  held  her 
fast,  but  him,  too,  she  tempted  with  the  second  root, 
and  so  made  gfood  her  escape.  In  an  Irish  story 
already  cited,  the  fugitives  threw  down  puppies 
to  the  bitch  pursuing  them ;  she  stopped  to  pick 
them  up.  A  Kafir  tale  relates  how  Ironside  advised 
his  sister  when  she  fled  with  her  child  from  her 
cannibal  husband,  to  pluck  tufts  of  hair  from  the 
child's  head  and  scatter  them  in  all  directions.  Each 
of  these  spoke  in  her  voice,  and  the  pursuers  were 
utterly  confused.  In  an  Eskimo  story  a  girl  and  her 
rescuer  escape  from  a  whale  by  throwing  away  her 
garments  one  by  one,  thus  delaying  the  pursuing 
animal.  Again,  in  the  classic  story  of  Jason,  when  he 
and  Medea  escape  after  he  has  by  her  help  per- 
formed the  tasks  set  him  and  won  the  golden  fleece, 
she  stays  her  pursuing  father  by  throwing  down  the 
mutilated  body  of  her  brother.  It  should  be  observed 
also  that  in  Samoa  a  curious  ruse  was  adopted  by 
members  of  the  seaweed  clan,  who  threw  seaweed  into 
the  sea  to  hinder  the  enemy's  flight.  If  the  enemy 
tried  to  pick  it  up  it  sank,  but  rose  again  when  any 
of  the  clan  paddled  up  to  it.  And  Grimm  informs  us 
that  a  favourite  device  for  escaping  from  witches  was 
to  throw  down  something  which  would  tempt  their 
avaricious  nature,  just  as  Rolf  delayed  his  pursuers 
by  casting  down  gold.^ 

Thus,  given  the  idea  of  a  pursuer  delayed  by 
some  object  thrown  down — a  likely  enough  inci- 
dent (we  have  all  heard  of  travellers  escaping  from 
wolves  by  such  a  device) — and  granted  the  idea 
of  transformation,  which  was  everywhere  current, 
the    story    artist    skilfully    combined    his    informa- 

^  Shortland,  p.  150.  Chatelain,  p.  99.  Knowles,  p.  210.  Theal, 
p.  123.  Rink,  p.  126.  Turner,  p.  71.  Grimm,  D.M.^  p.  1079.  Vig- 
fusson  and  Powell,  Corpus  Poet,  Boreale^  i.  190,  "  Lay  of  Rolf  Kraki." 


180  TRANSFORMATION 

tion,  as  in  the  Red  Indian  story  of  the  boy  and  the 
bears  he  combined  both  incidents,  and  produced  the 
delightful  episode  of  the  transformation  flight.  To 
transform  the  fugitives  themselves  was  the  next  step, 
easy  enough  to  take  when  the  belief  in  the  possibility 
of  human  shape-shifting  was  already  current  coin. 

It  should  be  observed  that,  as  a  rule,  the  trans- 
formations produced  are  extensions  of  the  objects 
thrown  down  —  water,  sea ;  stone,  mountain  or 
precipice ;  reed  or  twig,  forest ;  or  they  may  be 
supposed  to  resemble  them,  e.g.,  the  serrated  comb 
becomes  a  forest  or  a  range  of  mountains,  the  pebble 
a  precipice  (in  Eastern,  Malagasy,  and  Red  Indian 
tales),  the  mirror  a  lake,  etc.  That  they  should 
produce  something  so  much  greater  than  themselves 
is  not  surprising  to  those  who  have  studied  the 
belief  in  sympathetic  magic.  Like  produces  like, 
according  to  this  philosophy,  because  likeness  is 
equivalent  to  cause  and  effect,  even  though  the  effect 
may  be  stupendous  in  comparison  with  the  cause. 
Such  objects,  too,  as  the  magical  possessions  of  witch 
or  sorcerer,  *'may  typify  the  influence  which  the 
supernatural  beings  to  whom  they  belonged  were 
supposed  to  exercise  over  the  elements."^ 
f  Was  there  ever  a  time  in  which  these  various 
forms  of  transformation  were  deemed  natural  ?  The 
evidence  of  savage  psychology  proves  beyond  a  doubt 
that  such  a  time  did  exist.  It  presupposes  that  theory 
j, of  things,  already  alluded  to,  called  animism,  in  which 
■  men,  animals,  and  inanimate  objects  are  all  equally 
supposed  to  be  alive,  usually  by  virtue  of  the 
possession  of  a  spirit  or  soul,  and  to  have  similar 
passions,  powers,  and  faculties,  though  usually  animals 
are  credited  with  greater  powers  and  keener  wits 

^  Ralston,  p.  143.  The  value  of  the  comb  in  primitive  life  as  an 
ordinary  or  a  magic  possession  has  been  noted  by  Campbell,  i.  Ixxi. 
seq.^  and  Miss  Garnett,  ii.  437.  Its  occurrence  on  early  Celtic 
monuments  also  points  to  the  value  set  on  it. 


I 


ORIGIN  OF  THE  BELIEF  181 

than  men.  Two  aspects  of  this  theory  of  the  uni- 
verse have  aided  the  rise  of  the  belief  in  Trans- 
formation, (i)  It  is  thought  that  the  spirit,  human 
or  animal,  can  leave  its  enclosing"  body  and  wander 
about  or  take  up  its  residence  temporarily  in  another 
body.  Thus  the  spirit  of  a  man  may  for  the  nonce 
enter  into  an  animal  or  a  tree.  (2)  This,  with  the 
belief  in  the  underlying  similarity  of  all  things, 
hinders  men  from  having  a  definite  idea  of  personality. 
Personality  is  not  fixed  and  unalterable :  it  may 
assume  a  hundred  protean  disguises.  Hence  it  is 
nothing  surprising  to  the  savage  if  what  he  now  sees 
as  a  man,  immediately  after  he  sees  as  an  animal  or  a 
bush.  Wherever  we  trace  the  working  of  the  savage 
mind — in  Australia,  Africa,  Greenland,  Melanesia,  or 
elsewhere — these  ideas  are  found  unaltered,  and  they 
are  ideas  which  once  governed  the  minds  of  the 
ancestors  of  all  civilised  races.  There  is  thus  obtained 
a  practical  and  working  belief,  the  idea  that  men, 
animals,  and  spirits  or  gods  may  all,  from  time  to 
time,  assume  some  other  form  than  their  own.  The 
transformation  incidents  of  our  folk-tales  are,  or  have 
been,  in  fact,  believed  as  everyday  occurrences  by  all 
men  everywhere. 

(The  rise  of  the  institution  known  as  Totemism,^ 
-with  its  central  doctrine  of  the  close  kinship  between 
a  human  clan  and  an  animal  species,  aided  the 
acceptance  of  what,  to  us,  must  seem  an  incredible 
dogma.  Partly  as  a  result  of  totemism,  partly  as  the 
product  of  man's  myth-making  fancies,  stories  every- 
where arose  of  the  solidarity  of  human  and  animal,  of 
their  origin  from  one  primal  stock,  (i)  Thus  it  is 
a  common  belief  that,  as  the  Algonquins  say,  '*of  old 
all  animals  were  as  men ;  the  Master  (Glooskap) 
gave  them  the  shapes  they  now  wear."  Hence  a 
great  many  stories  all  over  the  world  explain  certain 
markings  or  distinctive  features  of  various  animals  as 

^  See  pp.  249-274. 


182  TRANSFORMATION 

the  result  of  what  once  happened  to  them  when  they 
were  men,  as  in  New  Guinea,  where  a  thief  fell  over 
a  cliff  and  had  his  features  flattened,  turning  into  a 
dug-ong-.^  This  is  mainly  a  totem  belief,  as  may  be 
seen  from  the  myths  of  Australians,  a  totemistic 
people  with  tribal  septs  called  after  animals.  Thus 
two  Weeoomben  brothers  asked  some  other  black 
fellows  to  help  them.  The  latter  expected  some 
reward,  but  on  going  to  claim  it  saw  only  two  little 
redbreasts  sitting  on  a  tree.  Then  they  knew  that 
these  were  the  brothers  transformed,  and  ever  after 
redbreasts  have  been  called  Weeoomben.  Men  of  a 
bird  clan  became  the  birds  themselves — one  out  of 
many  instances  in  which  men  and  women  are  changed 
into  animals,  birds,  or  stars,  which  afterwards  bear 
their  names.  The  Wurrunnunnah  were  an  industrious 
tribe,  the  Bunnyarl  very  lazy,  and  as  time  went  on 
the  former  became  bees,  the  latter  idle  flies — a 
transformation  quite  in  keeping  with  Bishop  Butler's 
theory  of  character  becoming  indelible.^  (2)  Again, 
we  have  such  a  belief  as  that  held  by  the  Hareskin 
Indians,  that  in  the  beginning  men  were  animals  and 
animals  were  men,  but  that  the  roles  were  later 
inverted,  or  that  once  the  owl  was  the  eagle  and  the 
eagle  the  owl ;  or  such  a  theory  as  that  of  the  Zunis, 
who  hold  that  all  things  were  originally  animals,  and 
that  now  men,  trees,  stars,  etc.,  are  really  degenerate 
animals,  all  possessing  souls  capable  of  leaving  their 
bodies.^  (3)  Another  theory  is  that  once  men  were 
animals    who    became    men.      This    is    a    common 

^  Leland,  A.L.^  p.  109.  Romilly,  p.  133.  The  dressing  in  the  totem- 
animal  skin  at^'sacred^dances,  or  in  bear-skins  before  a  bear-hunt,  or 
the  custom  of  wearing]animal  masks  in  war,  would  all  aid  the  belief  in 
transformation.  The  frenzy  of  the  dance  would  suggest  self-trans- 
formation to  the  dancer,  while  the  frightened  enemy  would  imagine  he 
had  human  animals  for  antagonists.  For  references  to  these  practices, 
see  Dorman,  P..248  j^^. 

2  Parker," pp.  19,  106. 

^  Petitot,  pp.  275-6.     Gushing,  intro.,  p.  ix. 


PRIMITIVE  DARWINISM  183 

Polynesian  belief;  in  the  Gilbert  group  it  is  thought 
that  men  were  developed  from  fish,  or  in  Eromanga 
that  men  were  pigs,  to  whom  the  lizard  gave  their 
present  shape ;  or  we  find  it  in  a  Tchippewaya  story 
of  a  magician  who  found  a  lot  of  people  living  in 
darkness  as  hares,  whom  he  changed  into  men  by 
circumcising  them,^  (4)  But,  further,  as  a  result  of 
totemistic  theories  of  animal  descent,  a  clan  or 
tribe  of  one  totem  who,  for  some  reason  or  another, 
dislike  the  animal  which  is  the  totem  of  another  clan, 
may  easily  come  to  regard  the  men  of  that  clan  as 
only  half-human,  or  as  altogether  possessed  of  the 
nature  of  the  animal  they  abhor.  Stories  of  distant 
tribes,  half-animal  or  liable  to  take  animal  form,  may 
have  arisen  in  this  way.  Thus  the  Dene  Indians 
regard  the  otter  as  the  personification  of  evil,  and  they 
have  traditions  of  a  race  of  men-otters.  These  are 
the  Aleuts,  to  whom  the  otter  is  a  totemistic  guardian. 
Again,  if  a  member  of  such  a  tribe  captured  a  woman 
of  the  other  tribe,  it  is  easy  to  see  how  her  friends 
would  come  to  say  that  she  had  married  an  otter, 
and  in  this  way  legends  of  beast-marriage  could  be 
accounted  for. 

These  primitive  strivings  after  a  Darwinian  theory 
of  the  universe  show  how  easily  it  became  credible 
that  men  or  animals  might,  for  a  time,  resume  the 
form  which  had  once  been  theirs,  or,  for  that  matter, 
take  any  other.  Where  personality  was  in  a  state  of 
unstable  equilibrium,  it  was  as  easy  to  mould  it  to 
any  shape  as  to  form  figures  out  of  clay.  Hence  we 
are  not  surprised  to  learn,  after  reading  collections  of 
savage  folk- tales — Aino,  Fjort,  Hottentot,  in  which 
animals  speak  and  act  precisely  as  men  (so  that  their 
animal  names  are  the  only  indication  of  what  they 
are),  are  on  the  same  level  as  human  beings,  or 
easily  assume  human  form — that  these  stories  have 

^  Turner,  pp.  296,  330.     Petitot,  p.  400. 


184  TRANSFORMATION 

sprung-  out  of  the  living-,  present-day  beliefs  of  the 
people.^ 

The  power  of  transformation  is  thus  a  current 
belief  among  savages,  and  sprang  out  of  such  con- 
ceptions as  have  been  noted.  The  Bushman  tale  of 
the  woman  who  became  a  lion,  is  the  reflection  of 
what  every  Bushman  believes  to  be  possible  of  his 
wife.^  Many  travellers  have  found  savage  witnesses 
of  the  act  of  transformation  on  the  part  of  another 
man ;  while  the  force  of  the  belief  may  not  rest  on  a 
man's  personal  power  of  transformation,  he  readily 
admits  that  other  men  like  himself  have  such  a  power. 
Hence  we  have  beliefs  in  the  existence  of  distant 
tribes  who  are  men  by  night  and  fish  by  day 
(Arawaks) ;  or  appear  now  as  bears,  or  gulls,  or 
ravens,  now  as  men  (Eskimo) ;  or  take  the  form  of 
crocodiles,  to  capture  and  eat  other  men  (Fjort) ;  or  of 
foxes,  who  are  men  and  women  in  all  but  the  posses- 
sion of  a  brush  (Japan).^  But,  generally  speaking, 
those  who  are  mainly  credited  with  the  power  of  self- 
transformation,  or  of  transforming  other  people,  are 
medicine-men,  shamans,  or  sorcerers.  To  multiply 
instances  of  their  power  here  would  be  tedious  ;  suffice 
it  to  say  that  wherever  the  medicine-man  is  found, 
''from  China  to  Peru,"  among  ancient  Celts,  Teutons, 
or  Slavs,  shape-shifting  is  always  one  of  his  magical 
powers.  The  majority  of  our  folk-tales  show  that  the 
magician,  witch,  ogre,  or  their  daughter,  or  their 
whilom  servant,  all  make  use  of  this  convenient  gift. 
Where  European  folk- tales  contain  the  transformation 
incident  it  is,  almost  invariably,  the  result  of  magical 
skill.  No  European  peasant  believes  he  can  change 
his  form,  though  his  savage  ancestors  did  ;  with  him 

1  See  the  collections  of  Chamberlain,  Dennett,  and  Bleek,  for  these 
respective  peoples. 

2  Vide  p.  163  supra. 

^  Im  Thurn,  p.  384.     Rink,  pp.  182,  451,  etc.     Dennett,  p.  5.     For 
the  fox  superstition,  see  infra. 


WITCH  AND  WIZARD  185 

the  belief  survives  in  his  firmly-rooted  opinion  that 
every  witch  can  do  so.  Witches  and  wizards  are 
everywhere  known  to  take  the  form  of  animals  for 
various  purposes,  usually  malignant,  and  one  special 
branch  of  the  witch  superstition — that  of  the  wer- 
wolf, cast  a  dark  and  weird  shadow  over  the  minds  of 
men,  and  is,  in  remote  places,  scarcely  extinct  even 
now.  The  mediaeval  and  later  witch  trials  contain 
many  examples  of  the  alleged  power  of  the  sorceress 
to  transform  other  people.^  In  fact  as  in  folk- tale, 
witch  and  wizard  are  the  lineal  descendants  of  the 
ancient  wise-woman  or  medicine-man,  and,  outside 
savage  tales,  the  power  of  shape-shifting-  which  they 
or  ordinary  mortals  possess  is  invariably  due  to  magi- 
cal causes,  i.e.,  it  has  ceased  to  be  natural  as  it  once 
was,  and  has  now  become  supernatural.  This  is 
clearly  seen  in  the  transformed  objects  which  delay 
pursuit ;  they  are  magical  properties  to  begin  with, 
frequently  stolen  from  a  supernatural  being  or  a 
witch,  while  in  a  Serbian  variant,  these  magical 
objects,  nuts,  are  not  transformed,  but  when  opened 
produce  a  river  and  a  conflagration.^ 

The  long  survival  of  such  a  belief  shows  how 
strong  human  preconceptions  may  be  in  face  of 
higher  beliefs  and  calm  reasoning,  while  their  vivid- 
ness is  equally  seen  in  the  hallucinations  of  actual 
shape-shifting  which  they  produced.  These  in  turn 
must  have  helped  to  bolster  up  the  belief  itself  It  is 
not  at  all  unlikely,  too,  that  the  unfortunate  victims 
of  madness,  imitating  in  their  frenzy  the  cries  and 
actions  of  various  animals,  may  have  suggested,  in 
primitive  and  later  times,  certain  aspects  of  the  shape- 
shifting  dogma,  especially  that  of  the  werwolf,  wer- 

^  Reuss,  p.  66.  The  evidence  was  never  first  hand,  and  the  same 
stories  repeat  themselves  with  monotonous  frequency  in  thousands  of 
trials.  See  the  note  on  witchcraft  in  Gurney,  Phantasms  of  the  Living, 
vol.  i.     Cf.  Podmore,  Modern  Spiritualism,  i.  17  seq. 

-  Mijatovich,  p.  84. 


186  TRANSFORMATION 

tiger,  etc.^  A  study  of  the  works  of  modern  alienists 
will  show  how  common  such  hallucinations  are,  and 
will  sug-gfest  how  readily  they  may  have  given  rise  to 
a  belief  in  actual  transformation  when  witnessed  by 
men  ignorant  of  their  true  causes.  A  savage  instance 
is  furnished  by  the  Aino,  who  believe  that  a  man  who 
cries  or  acts  like  an  animal,  cat,  dog,  or  bear,  has 
been  bewitched  by  the  spirit  of  such  an  animal  enter- 
ing into  him.  Among  the  Abipones,  if  a  sorcerer 
threatens  to  change  himself  into  a  tiger,  and  begins  to 
imitate  the  animal's  actions,  the  spectators  through 
fear  and  excitement  imagine  they  see  the  transforma- 
tion going  on.  This  is  an  excellent  example  of  the 
medicine-man  taking  advantage  of  the  preconceptions 
of  the  people.  Populus  vult  decipi,  decipiatur  I  Some- 
times, as  among  the  Ojibways,  he  will  do  this  by  dress- 
ing in  the  skin  of  the  animal  into  which  he  is  supposed 
to  change,  imitating  its  howls,  until  the  spectators 
believe  in  the  actuality  of  the  transformation.^ 

One  group  of  tales,  those  in  which  the  transforma- 
tion is  effected  by  eating  or  drinking,  may  have  had 
its  origin  in  part  in  an  actual  witch  practice.  It  is 
now  known  that  many  of  the  acts  claimed  to  have 
been  done  by  the  witch — riding  through  the  air,  trans- 
formation, etc. — were  simply  hallucinations  caused 
by  swallowing  certain  herbs,  like  stramonium.  Such 
herbs  were  often  given  by  the  witch  to  others,  who 
then  shared  in  these  hallucinations.^  In  modern  as 
in  ancient  Italy,  it  is  believed  that  witches  can  trans- 
form people  into  animals  or  into  members  of  the 
opposite  sex,  by  giving  them  certain  food.^     Both 

1  Cf.  Brierre  de  Boismont,  Traite  des  Hallucinations^  p.  327. 

2  Batchelor,    p.    507    (2nd    ed.).      Dobrizhoffer,   ii.    T].      Jones, 
Ojibways^  p.  145. 

3  Parish,  Hallucinations^  p.  40  seq.     Reuss,  La  Sorciere^  p.  133  seq. 
^  Leland,  E.R.R.^  p.  207.     Hypnotism  may  also  have  been  resorted 

to  in  order  to  suggest  change  into  animal  form.  For  the  possibilities 
of  this,  see  Proc.  Soc.  Psych.  Research^  i.  223  ;  Gurney,  op.  city  i.  98. 


UNIVERSITY 
THE  EARLY  NoV^ISi^g^PQ^^^^  187 

Ovid  and  St  Augustine  speak  of  this  in  their  own 
time.  The  Latin  poet  describes  how  a  Naiad,  by 
magic  strains  and  by  potent  herbs,  changed  some 
youths  into  fishes,  while  the  Christian  theologian 
relates  that  Italian  witches  gave  cheese  to  their  guests 
who  then  turned  into  beasts  and  obeyed  their  com- 
mands, afterwards  returning  to  their  human  form. 
Such  beliefs,  like  the  group  of  folk-tales  in  question, 
are  evidently  the  reflection  of  the  hallucinatory  experi- 
ences of  those  who  believed  themselves  transformed 
after  swallowing  such  drugs  as  these  referred  to. 

/When  we  find  such  ideas  as  these  the  current  coin 
of  all  races  past  and  present,  savage  or  civilised,  we 
cannot  be  surprised  at  the  exuberance  of  the  transfor- 
mation incidents  in  folk-tales.  The  story  inventor 
used  them  as  the  modern  novelist  does  any  current 
and  present-day  practice  or  opinion,  as  the  material  of 
his  tales.  And,  perhaps  more  than  any  other  irra- 
tional incident  of  fairy  stories,  they  still  gained  cred- 
ence among  the  peasantry  of  Europe,  who  held  that 
the  witch  had  just  such  powers,  and  who  were  there- 
fore all  the  less  critical  as  to  what  might  or  might  not 
have  happened  in  the  dark  backward  and  abysm  of 
time. 


CHAPTER  VII 

INANIMATE   OBJECTS   WITH   HUMAN   AND   MAGICAL 
QUALITIES 

The  preceding  chapters  have  shown  us  certain  primi- 
tive conceptions  of  human  personality,  how  the  spirit 
is  a  separable  entity,  and  how  a  man  may  take 
another  form  than  his  own.  We  are  now  to  see  how 
all  the  attributes  of  human  personality  are  freely 
ascribed  to  inanimate  things,  and  how  this  conception 
occurs  in  the  folk-tales  of  all  races.  Arranging  these 
tales  as  far  as  possible  in  groups,  we  shall  note  how 
some  are  due  to  animistic,  others  to  fetichistic  ideas  ; 
others  again  to  the  belief  in  magic,  sympathetic  or 
mimetic. 

( I )  I  shall  begin  with  certain  groups  of  stories  the 
central  ideas  of  which  are  directly  due  to  that  primi- 
tive mental  confusion  by  which  ''all  things,  animate 
or  inanimate,  human,  animal,  vegetable,  or  inorganic, 
seem  on  the  same  level  of  life,  passion,  and  reason."^ 
One  of  the  best-known  forms  which  this  conception 
takes  in  folk-story  is  that  of  the  old  woman  and  her 
pig,  in  which  the  dog  is  asked  to  bite  the  refractory 
pig,  the  stick  to  strike  the  dog,  fire  to  burn  the  stick, 
water  to  put  out  the  fire,  the  ox  to  drink  the  water, 
the  butcher  to  kill  the  ox,    the  rope  to  hang  the 

'  Such  objects  occur  in  those  tales  of  a  rose  which  speaks  or  sings, 
dancing- water,  etc.     See  p.  59.     Tylor,  Primitive  Culture^  ii. 


THE  OLD  WOMAN  AND  HER  PIG  189 

butcher,  the  rat  to  gfnaw  the  rope,  and  the  cat  to  kill 
the  rat.  All  refuse  till  the  cat  gets  milk ;  then  the 
order  is  obeyed,  and  each  inanimate  object  and  each 
animal  does  what  is  required,  acting-  as  if  they  were 
really  human.  No  better  example  could  be  gfiven  of 
the  supposed  equality  of  human,  animate,  and 
inanimate  which  the  primitive  theory  of  animism,  as 
defined  by  Dr  Tylor's  words  just  cited,  announces. 
The  story,  which  is  of  the  type  called  cumulative, 
takes  many  forms  in  different  countries,  but  is  funda- 
mentally the  same.  An  Italian  variant  introduces  a 
cock,  wounded  by  a  mouse,  asking  an  old  woman  for 
a  ragf  to  bind  his  wound.  She  demands  two  hairs, 
which  he  begs  from  a  dog.  The  dog  asks  bread  ;  the 
cock  goes  to  the  baker,  who,  in  turn,  demands  wood. 
This  is  asked  for  from  the  forest,  but  the  forest 
expects  some  water  first,  which  the  fountain  says  it  is 
willing  to  give.  So  at  last  through  the  long  chain  of 
causes,  the  poor  cock  gets  his  rag.  The  Berber 
version  is  not  unlike  this,  but  introduces  a  fly  whose 
tail  an  old  woman  has  pulled  off.  To  redeem  it  he 
has  to  fetch  a  he-goat ;  the  he-goat  asks  grass. 
Grass  is  demanded  from  the  fig-tree,  which  begs  for 
dung;  this  is  obtained  from  the  ox,  and  so  the  fly 
gets  his  tail.  In  a  curious  Hottentot  version  a  cat 
bites  a  mouse,  a  dog  bites  the  cat,  wood  beats  the 
dog,  fire  consumes  wood,  water  quenches  fire,  the 
elephant  drinks  water.  Hence  the  dog  and  cat  do 
not  agree  now.^  The  many  variants  of  this  story 
found  in  all  countries,  savage  and  civilised,  as  well 
as  its  form,  prove  it  to  have  been  of  early  origin,  as 

^  The  first  variant  is  English,  Halliwell,  p.  114.  C/.  a  Scots 
version  in  Chambers,  p.  57.  The  Italian  version  is  given  by  Crane, 
p.  252,  with  variants  ;  the  Berber  by  Basset,  p.  95.  An  ancient 
Greek  version  from  Anacreon  is  given  in  Melusine^  iii.  140.  For  a 
Corsican  variant,  see  Ortoli,  p.  237 ;  German,  Grimm,  No.  80 ; 
French,  Bladd,  No.  5  ;  many  others  in  Cosquin,  No.  34,  and  Romaniay 
No.  24  and  No.  28  ;  Gaelic,  Campbell,  i.  161.  Bleek,  p.  33.  The 
Jewish  ritual  of  the  Passover  incorporates  a  curious  version. 


190  INANIMATE  OBJECTS 

indeed  does  the  theory  of  animism  on  which  it  entirely 
depends. 

In  another  group  a  whole  series  of  objects  under 
the  power  of  a  sorceress  are  helpful  to  the  heroine, 
who  has  acted  kindly  to  them.  A  good  example  is 
found  in  the  Sicilian  tale  of  Osella,  who  was  sent  by 
one  witch  to  another,  but  warned  by  the  King-  of  Love 
as  to  what  she  must  do.  Following  his  advice,  she 
drinks  of  a  river  of  blood  and  says  she  has  never 
tasted  water  like  it ;  praises  the  fruit  of  a  pear-tree, 
and  the  bread  in  an  oven ;  feeds  two  dogs ;  sweeps 
and  cleans  the  door  and  stair  of  the  witch's  house ; 
and  cleans  her  razor,  scissors,  and  knife.  The  time 
comes  when  she  has  to  flee  from  the  witch,  who  calls 
on  the  razor,  knife,  and  scissors  to  cut  her  in  pieces. 
They  reply  that  Osella  has  cleaned  them,  which  the 
witch  never  did.  She  orders  the  door  and  staircase 
to  swallow  her  up,  but  receives  the  same  answer. 
Similarly,  the  dogs  refuse  to  eat  her,  the  oven  to 
receive  her,  the  tree  to  put  her  on  the  spit,  and  the 
river  to  drown  her,  and  so  she  escapes.^  This  episode 
occurs  in  many  stories  of  the  Cupid  and  Psyche  group. 
When  the  heroine  has  lost  her  mysterious  husband 
and  has  gone  to  seek  him,  she  falls  into  the  power  of 
a  witch,  sometimes  his  mother,  sometimes  the  woman 
who  enforces  his  marriage  with  her,  or  with  her 
daughter.  She  sends  her  to  another  witch  to  obtain 
jewels  for  the  wedding,  meanwhile  her  husband  meets 
her  and  advises  her  what  to  do.  In  the  Danish 
variant  she  bolts  the  gate,  which  is  ever  swinging  to 
and  fro  ;  feeds  a  flock  of  geese ;  gives  two  men  oven- 
rakes  and  two  girls  iron  ladles  ;  feeds  two  dogs ;  and 
oils  the  hinges  of  the  creaking  door.  When  she 
leaves  with  the  jewels,  the  witch  bids  the  door  jam 
her,  the  dogs  to  bite  her,  the  girls  and  the  men  to 
scald  and  burn  her,  the  geese  to  stamp  upon  her, 
and  the  gate  to  squeeze  her ;  but  all  refuse,  because 

1  Pitrd,  No.  1 8. 


THE  TWO  CASKETS  191 

she  has  been  so  kind  to  them.  There  are  several 
variants  of  this  story,  Swedish,  Russian,  etc.  In 'the 
last  a  birch-tree  is  ordered  to  poke  the  girl's  eyes  out, 
but  it  refuses,  because  she  has  tied  a  ribbon  round  it — 
an  evident  reminiscence  of  some  form  of  tree-worship, 
in  which  the  tree  is  regarded  as  a  living-  being-. ^ 

Analogous  to  these  are  certain  tales,  of  which  the 
Swedish  Two  Caskets  is  a  good  example.  A  woman 
pushed  her  stepdaughter  into  a  well.  The  girl 
dropped  on  to  a  meadow,  and  came  to  a  fence  which 
said,  "  Do  me  no  harm ;  I  am  old  and  decayed." 
She  stepped  carefully  over  it,  and  the  fence  gave  her 
a  friendly  look  and  wished  her  well.  She  was  equally 
kind  to  an  oven,  a  cow,  and  an  apple-tree,  all  of  which 
were  as  grateful  as  the  fence.  The  animals  in  the 
witch's  house  at  which  she  presently  arrived  assisted 
her  in  the  tasks  set  her,  because  she  had  been  kind  to 
them.  Then  by  the  cat's  advice  she  took  the  dingy 
casket,  which  proved  to  be  full  of  rich  treasures,  when 
she  returned  to  her  stepmother's  house.  ^  The  jealous 
woman  sent  her  own  daughter  into  the  well ;  she  was 
disdainful  of  all  the  objects  and  creatures  which  her 
sister  had  helped.  She  came  to  grief,  and  chose  a 
pretty  casket  which  proved  to  be  full  of  snakes  and 
toads.  The  frank  animism  of  this  story,  of  which 
there  are  several  versions,  is  remarkable.^    A  close 

^  Mulley,  p.  224.     Cavallius,  No.  146.     Ralston,  p.  139. 

^  The  incident  of  choosing  the  worst  and  getting  the  best,  and 
vice  versa — the  casket  episode  in  the  Merchant  of  Venice — is  common 
in  folk-tales,  and  is  as  old  as  the  story  of  Cupid  and  Psyche.  Psyche 
was  told  to  refuse  the  fare  which  Persephone  offered  her,  and  to 
ask  for  coarse  bread.  It  is  also  found  in  many  Eastern  tales,  in 
Japan  (Mitford,  i.  249),  among  the  Navajoes  (Schoolcraft,  iv. 
90),  and  the  Ashantis  (Hutton,  Visit  to  Africa^  p.  20).  In  the  two 
latter  cases  it  forms  a  myth  explaining  the  sad  condition  of  the  world 
now. 

3  Thorpe,  Y.T.S.^  p.  97.  Norse,  Dasent,  355  (hedge,  cow,  wether, 
and  apple-tree).  German,  Grimm's  Frau  Holle.  The  motif  of  this 
story,  which  may  be  called  that  of  "  Kind  and  Unkind "  has  a  wide 
distribution.     We  shall  meet  with  it  in  studying  the  Youngest  Son 


192  INANIMATE  OBJECTS 

parallel  is  afforded  by  an  Indian  story,  in  which  the 
elder  of  a  man's  two  wives  is  driven  out  by  the 
younger.  In  her  wanderings  she  came  to  a  cotton- 
plant,  made  a  small  broom,  and  swept  the  ground 
around  it,  whereupon  the  plant  gave  her  its  blessing. 
The  same  service  was  performed  for  a  plantain-tree,  a 
Brahmani  bull,  and  a  tulasi-plant,  and  a  similar 
blessing  was  obtained  from  each.  In  the  sequel  she 
received  both  youth  and  beauty  by  following  a  holy 
man's  advice,  while  the  bull  gave  her  shells  and  the 
trees  presented  her  with  some  of  their  leaves,  and 
through  the  magical  powers  of  these  objects  all  her 
wishes  were  granted.  The  young  wife  now  thought 
she  might  also  be  made  more  beautiful,  but  she 
despised  bull  and  tree,  and  did  not  follow  the  holy 

group.  But  here  is  a  curious  parallel  from  New  Caledonia.  There 
were  two  birds,  Pivi  and  Kabo,  the  one  bright  and  cheerful,  the  other 
an  ugly  croaker.  Kabo  broke  Pivi's  leg,  but  he,  by  obeying  the 
orders  of  a  woman,  changed  into  a  beautiful  youth.  He  was  to  lie 
still  while  the  Black  Ant  crawled  over  him,  and  to  shake  when  the 
Red  Ant  did  so.  Then,  when  the  transformation  was  effected,  he  was 
to  climb  a  cocoa-nut  tree  without  using  his  hands,  and  carry  down  the 
fruit.  Having  done  this,  he  got  two  pretty  wives  as  a  reward.  Kabo 
heard  of  it,  and  thought  he  might  as  well  have  his  turn.  He  moved 
Pivi  to  break  his  leg,  but  when  the  woman  found  him  he  disobeyed  all 
her  instructions.  He  was  changed  to  an  ugly  man,  and  had  two  old 
hags  given  him  for  his  wives.  In  revenge  he  induced  Pivi  to  dive 
into  the  sea  and  bring  up  a  huge  shell-fish.  Poor  Pivi  was  swallowed 
by  the  fish,  and  Kabo  went  and  took  his  young  wives.  But,  lo,  Pivi 
stood  at  the  door  of  the  hut,  and,  having  called  his  friends,  he  and 
they  cut  Kabo  to  pieces.  For  Pivi  had  worked  away  with  his  spear 
till  the  fish  was  forced  to  open  his  shell  and  so  let  him  escape.  Has 
this  tale  drifted  to  New  Caledonia,  or  has  it  been  invented  separately 
there?  If  the  former,  it  has  become  a  true  native  story  with  the 
"Swallow"  incident  tacked  on.  Bulletin  de  la  Socidtd  d^ Anthro- 
pologies ser.  iii.,  vol.  ix.  361.  Cited  in  Lang's  Brown  Fairy  Book, 
p.  183.  In  European  fairy  stories  we  frequently  find  a  hunchback 
losing  his  hump  while  the  fairies  transfer  it  to  some  man  who  hag 
displeased  them  or  envied  the  other's  good  luck.  In  the  Kafir  story 
on  p.  257,  the  girl  whom  the  snake  marries  followed  the  advice  of 
various  animals.  Her  sister  rejected  it,  and  was  killed  by  the 
snake. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  BIRDS  193 

man's  advice.  As  a  result  she  became  ugly  and  old.^ 
This  story,  from  a  land  where  trees  and  animals  are 
still  worshipped  and  believed  to  give  benefits  to  the 
worshipper,  requires  no  comment. 

Not  less  animistic  are  a  number  of  stories  (some 
of  them  already  noted)  in  which  various  unconsidered 
trifles,  most  frequently  saliva,  personate  the  hero  or 
heroine,  and  so  prevent  their  captors,  an  ogre  or  a 
witch,  from  observing  their  flight.  Usually  the  incident 
occurs  in  tales  where  the  hero,  in  the  power  of  an 
ogre,  falls  in  love  with  his  daughter,  who  assists  him 
to  escape  with  her.  The  daughter  in  the  Celtic  story 
of  The  Battle  of  the  Birds  says  to  her  lover,  "  Stop  a 
while,  and  I  will  play  a  trick  on  the  old  hero."  She 
cut  an  apple  into  nine  pieces,  put  two  at  the  head  of 
the  bed,  two  at  the  foot,  two  at  the  kitchen  door,  two 
at  the  big  door,  and  one  outside  the  house.  Then  the 
lovers  fled.  The  giant  awoke  and  called,  ''Are  you 
asleep?"  "We  are  not  yet,"  said  the  piece  at  the 
head  of  the  bed.  To  his  successive  questions  the 
other  pieces  answered  in  turn ;  the  giant  was  com- 
pletely deceived ;  and  the  fugitives  got  a  good  start 
before  he  discovered  the  fraud  and  set  off  in 
pursuit.^  More  usually,  as  witness  the  Polish  tale  of 
"  Prince  Unexpected,"  it  is  the  heroine  s  saliva  which 
answers  the  questions,  bursting  into  laughter  when 
the  fraud  is  discovered.  Of  this  there  are  Swedish, 
Basque,  Celtic,  Magyar,  Russian,  and  German  vari- 
ants, to  mention  only  a  few.^  Other  articles  are  made 
to  serve  the  same  purpose,  as  in  the  Sicilian  tale  of 
Snow- White  Rose- Red,  where,  before  escaping,  the 

^  Day,  p.  280. 

2  Campbell,  i.  25,  with  several  variants.  Cf.  the  Basque  and 
Russian  tales  cited  in  chap,  vi.,  pp.  171,  176. 

^  i^.Z.y.,  ii.  14.  Thorpe,  KT^.^.j  p.  223.  Webster,  p.  125.  Campbell, 
i.  56  (Auburn  Mary).  Jones,  p.  xxxiii.  Ralston,  p.  143.  Grimm,  i.  225. 
Y.T.S.^  p.  441.  For  other  mystic  qualities  of  saliva,  see  American 
Folk-lore  Society's  Journal^  iii.  52  ;  Proc.  Soc.  Ant  Scotland^  iv.  212. 
Hair  speaks  in  the  same  way  in  a  Kafir  story  cited  on  p.  172  supra. 

N 


194  INANIMATE  OBJECTS 

prince  bade  the  tables,  chairs,  and  drawers  answer  the 
ogress's  questions  in  his  own  voice ;  ^  while  in  a 
Swedish  tale  Singforra  leaves  three  dolls,  one  on  the 
bed,  one  on  the  floor,  and  one  on  the  threshold, 
cutting  her  finger  and  dropping  some  of  her  blood  on 
each.  The  first  cries  to  the  mermaid,  "  I  am 
awake";  the  second,  "I  am  kindling  the  fire";  the 
third,  "  The  fire  burns  "  ;  and  so  delay  the  pursuit.^ 
The  Malagasy  have  a  similar  story.  The  hero,  at  its 
desire,  has  uprooted  a  shrub,  and  taken  it  with  him. 
He  comes  to  a  village  of  magicians,  where  the  shrub 
warns  him  not  to  eat  their  food.  Next  night  he 
lodges  with  a  brigand,  who  intends  to  kill  him 
when  he  is  asleep.  The  shrub  personates  the 
hero  behind  the  door  and  answers  in  his  voice. 
Meanwhile  he  and  the  brigand's  wife  have  fled ;  the 
brigand  pursues,  but,  by  the  shrub's  advice,  is  put  to 
death.^ 

Sometimes  an  inanimate  object  helps  its  owner. 
Thus  a  native  story  from  Uganda  relates  that  Kintu, 
the  first  man,  received  a  copper  axe  from  Mugulu 
(Heaven),  and  was  told  to  split  the  rocks  with  it. 
He  was  in  despair,  when  the  axe  said,  "It  is  easy 
enough  for  me,  just  strike  and  see ! "  Next  day  he 
had  to  fetch  a  bucketful  of  dew.  *'This  does  not 
seem  easy,"  cried  Kintu.  ''  Easy  enough  for  me," 
said  the  bucket,  and  when  he  looked  he  found  it  full 
of  dew.*  In  a  Magyar  story  the  hero  is  told  by  a 
witch  to  place  a  loaf  outside  the  fortress  door,  there 
to  await  the  coming  of  a  dragon.  The  dragon 
arrives,  and  the  loaf  cries,  '*  I'm  on  guard  here.    If  you 


^  Pitre,  p.  13.  ^  Thorpe,  op.  cit.^  p.  21ZV  cf.  225. 

^  Ferrand,  p.  93.  Conversely,  when  Polynesians  go  on  a  thieving 
expedition  the  god  Kongo  is  entreated  to  make  not  only  those  in  the 
house  sleep,  but  also  the  threshold,  insects,  and  ants,  the  central  posts, 
rafters,  beams,  and  thatch.     Gill,  p.  150  ;  Shortland,  p.  66. 

^  Johnston,  ii.  702.  Later  a  hornet  helps  the  hero  to  pick  his 
stolen  cow  out  of  a  herd  by  alighting  on  its  shoulder. 


THE  SPEAKING  RING  195 

wish  to  get  in  you  must  suffer  what  I've  suffered"; 
and  the  loaf  goes  on  to  tell  how  it  had  been  exposed 
as  a  plant  to  sun,  and  rain,  and  snow,  been  cut  down, 
threshed,  ground,  kneaded,  and  placed  seven  times  in 
a  fiery  furnace.  The  dragon,  knowing  he  could  not 
stand  all  this,  got  so  angry  that  he  burst  and  perished. 
This  incident  occurs  in  several  versions  of  the  Puss  in 
Boots  story.  The  cat  turns  itself  into  a  loaf,  and 
holds  the  troll  or  giant  in  conversation  till  sunrise, 
when  he  bursts,  and  his  castle  then  becomes  the 
property  of  the  hero  or  heroine.^  Several  stories  of 
the  Cannibalistic  Cyclops  group  tell  how  the  blinded 
ogre  threw  down  a  ring  which  the  hero  picked  up  and 
put  on  his  finger.  He  had  no  sooner  done  so  than  it 
began  to  cry  out,  guiding  the  monster  to  his  victim, 
who  only  escaped  by  cutting  off  his  finger  and 
throwing  it  with  the  ring  into  the  sea.  There  it  still 
talked,  and  the  ogre,  following  it,  was  drowned.  This 
is  the  Basque  version,  but  there  are  Celtic,  German, 
and  Russian  variants ;  in  the  last  the  hero  catches 
hold  of  a  gold  axe  which  guides  the  one-eyed  hag  to 
him,  because  he  cannot  let  it  go.  In  a  Basuto  tale, 
whenever  a  girl  tries  to  escape  from  the  chief  who  has 
captured  her  his  magic  horns  inform  him  of  the  fact, 
till,  advised  by  her  friends,  she  pours  water  and  food 
into  them,  and  piles  stones  on  them.^ 

As  a  last  example  may  be  cited  those  tales  in 
which  the  captured  hero  or  heroine  is  given  a  human 
limb  to  eat  by  the  ogre,  robber  chief,  or  witch.  When 
the  captor  asks  if  the  limb  is  eaten,  it  answers  from 

1  Jones,  p.  79.  Thorpe,  V.T.S.,  pp.  64,  70.  Dasent,  p.  369. 
Grimm,  ii.  182.  Straparola,  xi.  i.  Basile,  ii.  4.  In  popular  belief, 
sunrise  or  cockcrow  ends  the  power  of  vampire,  fairy,  ghost,  and 
witch.  It  is  curious  to  observe  that  West  African  witch-women  and 
sorcerers  must  return  from  their  secret  meetings  by  cockcrow  also, 
else  they  will    find  themselves    in    peril.       See   Nassau,   pp.    123, 

327. 

2  Webster,  p.  4.  Grimm,  "  The  Robber  and  his  Sons."  Campbell, 
i.  112.     Cf.  "Cannibalism,"  in/ra,  p.  280.      Jacottet,  p.  249. 

■ 


196  INANIMATE  OBJECTS 

the  place  where  the  prisoner  has  hid  it.  But  some- 
times the  heroine,  youngest  of  three  sisters,  as  in  an 
Italian  version,  by  advice  of  her  mother's  ghost,  binds 
it  about  her  body,  and  it  answers,  *'  In  Maruzza's 
body,"  and  the  robber  thinks  she  has  eaten  it.^ 

The  inanimate  objects  which  speak  and  act  are 
relics  of  the  time,  not  so  very  far  away,  when  all 
things  were  believed  to  have  such  powers.  '*The 
Samoans  have  their  stories  of  a  golden  age  of  intel- 
ligence long,  long  ago,  when  all  things  material  had 
the  power  of  speech."^  This  statement  might  be 
paralleled  from  the  lore  of  any  savage  race,  but  as  a 
rule  that  age  of  intelligence  is  as  much  in  the  present 
as  in  the  past.  Thus  the  Aino  attributes  life  and 
personality  to  everything;  while  certain  things 
(fetiches)  not  only  have  life,  but  can  protect,  help, 
and  heal.^  This  is  also  the  belief  of  Red  Indians, 
Bushmen,  Melanesians,  or  any  such  savage  people, 
while  it  lingers  on  as  a  half-belief  among  the  peasantry 
of  Europe.  We  see  it  again  in,  e.g^,,  the  eggs  used  as 
omens  by  the  Khasi  Hill  tribes,  which  are  addressed 
as  living,  and  are  capable  of  mediating  between  spirits 
and  men ;  or  in  the  waterfalls,  streams,  and  material 
objects  of  all  sorts  which  the  Indians  of  Guiana,  like 
the  Tahitians,  Tongans,  Negroes,  or  Asiatic  Finns, 
believe  to  be  alive.  But  these  topics  are  now  the 
commonplaces  of  anthropological  study,  and  need  not 
be  multiplied  here.  Their  wide  distribution  and 
recent  survival  sufficiently  account  for  the  talking 
and  acting  objects  which  occur  in  hundreds  of  folk- 
tales from  every  part  of  the  world.* 

(2)  The  magical  objects  in  the  succeeding  groups 
of  stories  suggest  fetichism  rather  than  animism  as 

^  Crane,  p.  82.     Cf.  Tabu,  p.  307.     Ralston,  p.  178. 

2  Turner,  Samoa^  p.  212.     Cf.  pp.  247-48. 

3  Batchelor,  ed.  2,  p.  456. 

^  J.A.I.y  i.  134.     Im  Thurn,  Indians  of  Guiana^  p.  350. 


SPEAKING  DOLLS  197 

the  point  of  departure.  The  first  group  stands  mid- 
way between,  and  contains  stories  of  puppets  which 
act  in  all  respects  as  if  alive.  In  the  Swedish  tale  of 
Sing-orra  we  have  already  seen  how  the  dolls  answer 
for  the  heroine;  there,  however,  it  is  permissible  to 
suppose  that  her  blood,  like  the  saliva  of  other  tales, 
supplied  the  answering-  voice.  But  the  doll  of  the 
Russian  story  of  Vasilissa  the  Fair  is  a  doll  and 
nothing  more,  though  a  surprisingly  lively  one.  It 
was  given  to  Vasilissa  by  her  dying  mother ;  it  gave 
her  advice,  worked  for  her,  kept  her  pretty  when  her 
stepmother  starved  her,  and  when  she  was  sent  to 
the  Baba  Yaga's  house,  prevented  her  making  any 
false  step  and  performed  the  difficult  tasks  set  her. 
Thus  it  bears  a  strong  semblance  to  the  shrub  of  the 
Malagasy  story,  while  it  also  resembles  the  dolls 
belonging  to  a  demi-goddess  in  the  Katha  Sarit 
SagarUy  one  of  which  would  fetch  flowers,  another 
water,  while  a  third  danced,  and  a  fourth  conversed 
with  her.  Again,  in  Japan  there  is  a  belief  that  dolls 
sometimes  come  alive.  They  are  served  with  food 
and  carefully  treated,  lest  misfortune  should  befall 
the  house  through  neglecting  them.  A  doll  acquires 
a  soul  through  being  played  with  by  generations  of 
children.  One  such  doll  was  borrowed  by  childless 
persons,  who  fed  and  clothed  it,  with  happy  results  to 
themselves.^ 

The  personation  of  the  hero  or  heroine  by  a 
puppet  occurs  frequently,  especially  in  Italian  stories, 
where  an  absent  mistress  leaves  one  to  take  her  place 
or  bear  the  brunt  of  her  husband's  anger,  as  mediaeval 
witches  were  believed  to  do  when  absent  from  their 
husband's  side  at  the  sabbat.^     In  one  story,  however, 

^  Ralston,  p.  150.  In  some  of  the  stories  in  which  a  king  wishes 
to  marry  his  daughter,  a  puppet  causes  the  earth  to  open  so  that  she 
escapes  him.  Clouston,  P.T.  &^  F.^  i.  380.  Hearn,  Unfamiliar 
Japan,  i.  267. 

2  For  the  witch  belief,  see  Reuss,  La  Sorcihre,  p.  39. 


iOS  INANIMATE  OBJECTS 

a  prince  falls  in  love  with  a  doll  which  a  merchant 
brougfht  to  his  wife,  and  by  the  help  of  a  fairy  it 
becomes  human,  as  Pygmalion's  statue  did  at  the 
command  of  Aphrodite.  So  in  an  Esthonian  story  a 
girl  abused  by  her  stepmother  is  adopted  by  a  strange 
race  living  in  a  forest.  An  image  of  clay  is  made, 
and  a  snake  as  well  as  bread  and  herrings  put  in  it, 
and  it  is  sprinkled  with  a  drop  of  her  blood,  when  it 
comes  to  life,  and  is  sent  to  personate  the  girl  at  her 
home.  One  day  the  stepmother  was  about  to  strangle 
the  supposed  child,  when  the  serpent  bit  her  ;  the  image 
then  disappeared,  but  the  father  found  the  bread  and 
herrings  on  the  table.     He  ate  them,  and  died.^ 

From  another  point  of  view,  these  objects  have 
a  connection  with  sympathetic  magic.  An  ancient 
Egyptian  folk-tale  relates  that  a  magician  made 
workmen  and  tools  out  of  wax,  recited  a  charm  over 
them,  and  gave  them  life.  This  was  an  actual 
Egyptian  belief,  for  the  little  images  buried  with  the 
dead  were  believed  to  come  to  life  in  the  other  world 
and  act  as  their  servants.  Sometimes,  as  in  Japanese 
and  Roman  sacrifices ;  they  replaced  the  human 
victims  of  earlier  times,  but  were  believed  to  be 
equally  efficacious.  The  mere  likeness  to  a  human 
being  gave  them  the  value  of  the  living  personality.^ 

Objects  such  as  these  recall  the  powers  of  the  Red 
Indian  nianitou  and  savage  personal  fetiches,  as  we 
shall  presently  see.  Meanwhile  it  should  be  noted 
that  similar  qualities  are  ascribed  to  statues  or  images 
of  gods  and  saints  in  ancient  Greece  and  Rome,  in 
Scandinavia,  Lapland,  China,  Japan,  Siam,  India, 
Madagascar,  Mexico,  Peru,  and  elsewhere,  as  well 
as  to  the  relics  of  Mohammedan  saints  among  the 
Arabs.  They  speak,  give  advice,  weep  on  approach 
of  calamity,  make  signs,  leave  their  shrine  to  heal  the 

^  Crane,  p.  114.     Kirby,  i.  246. 

-  Maspero,  p.   59,  Story  of  Satui.     Macrobius,   Saturnalia^  i.  7. 
Chamberlain,  Ko-ji-ki^  p.  200. 


FETICHISM  199 

sick,  or  to  fight  for  their  worshippers.  The  records 
of  every  known  religion  supply  abundant  evidence  of 
this,  while  such  ideas  are  reproduced  copiously  in 
mediaeval  hagfiologfy  with  respect  to  the  images  of 
saints.  All  serve  to  illustrate  the  dominant  power  of 
an  early  idea — that  of  life  in  an  inanimate  object, 
over  minds  which  had  long-  passed  beyond  the  stage 
at  which  such  an  idea  could  have  been  created,  and 
show  that  this  idea  had  its  religious  as  well  as  its 
folk-lore  presentation.^ 

In  animism  all  objects  are  conceived  to  possess  a 
spirit,  just  as  man  himself  does.  In  fetichism  proper, 
which  is  derived  from  animism,  any  spirit  is  believed 
to  be  capable  of  taking  up  its  residence  in  any  object, 
frequently  one  prepared  for  the  purpose.  Hence  the 
images  of  the  gods  are  superior  fetiches,  since  the 
divinities  are  believed  to  reside  in  them ;  nor  is  it 
extraordinary  that  these  images  are  believed  to  act 
as  living  things,  since  the  savage  always  credits  his 
fetich  with  such  power.  It  is  possible  that  the 
guardian  puppet  of  our  tales  may  have  been  derived 
from  some  such  personal  fetich  as  the  Red  Indian 
manitou- — the  skin,  claws,  or  teeth  of  some  animal 
which  each  man  carries,  and  which  is  believed  to  be 
the  receptacle  of  his  guardian  animal  spirit.  So  the 
West  African  negro  makes  a  bizarre  object  which 
becomes  the  home  of  his  guardian  spirit  or  suhmanP' 


^  Classical  students  will  recall  many  instances  in  Herodotus, 
Pausanias,  Pliny,  Livy,  and  Cicero.  Tylor  (ii.  221,  253)  cites  some 
cases,  and  Berenger-Feraud  (ii.  10,  12)  is  still  more  copious. 
For  the  Arabs,  see  Trumelet,  Les  Franqais  dans  la  Desert,  pp.  45,  177, 
246;  Buddhists,  Landes,  Nos.  11,  60;  India,  Rev.  des  T.P.,  ii.  18; 
Peru,  Herrera,  Hist,  des  Indies,  passim;  for  mediaeval  times  the  Acta 
and  Martyrologies  are  full  of  cases  ;  Gregory  of  Tours,  de  Mirac., 
gives  several ;  and  among  modern  writers  see  J.  B.  Dulaure,  Poitou, 
iv.  Ill,  127;  J.  B.  Labat,  Voyages  en  Espagne,  i.  211  ;  Voyages  en 
Italie,  V.  365  ;  Sebillot,  Trad.  Pop.,  \.  369. 

-  See  the  chapter  on  Fetichism  in  my  Religion^  its  Otigin  ami 
Forms  J  and  Nassau,  chap.  vi. 


200  INANIMATE  OBJECTS 

Fetiches  such  as  these  are  found  among  primitive 
people  everywhere,  and  everywhere  their  powers  are 
the  same — guarding  their  owners,  advising  them, 
aiding  them  in  their  designs,  good  or  wicked. 
Wherever  such  a  belief  prevails,  it  would  easily 
become  the  topic  of  folk-tales,  and  this  suggests  that 
our  stories,  if  not  themselves  dating  from  a  time 
when  such  personal  fetiches  were  believed  in,  are  the 
lineal  descendants  of  early  tales.  Yet  personal  fetiches 
were  firmly  believed  in  down  to  comparatively  late 
times  in  Europe.  In  mediaeval  German  households 
the  Galgen-mdnnleiny  or  mandrake,  handed  down  from 
father  to  son,  contained  a  familiar  spirit,  which  gave 
oracles  and  brought  good  luck  to  the  owner,  if  he 
dressed  it,  bathed  it,  and  otherwise  took  good  care 
of  it.  In  other  cases  a  puppet  made  of  white  wax  in 
the  devil's  name,  and  clad  in  a  petticoat  and  vest, 
was  believed  to  give  aid  to  its  owner.  Precisely  the 
same  thing  is  done  by  the  Bondei  wizards  in  Africa. 
They  "charm "  sticks  of  Indian  corn,  and  dress  them 
like  dolls.  The  dolls  thus  become  people,  and  are 
able  to  go  wherever  sent.  When  they  arrive  at  the 
desired  spot,  they  suck  the  blood  of  the  victim,  who 
turns  sick  and  dies.  This  is  great  witchcraft,  and 
much  feared  by  all  respectable  Bondeis.^  Again,  in 
Scandinavian,  Esthonian,  Celtic,  and  Eskimo  folk- 
lore the  witch  or  wizard  is  believed  to  make  an  object 
of  various  materials.  When  certain  spells  are  said 
over  it,  it  comes  to  life,  and  can  then  be  sent  to 
execute  errands  or,  usually,  to  work  harm  and  death. '^ 

1  Elton,  Origins  of  English  History,  p.  219;  Grimm,  DM.,  p. 
513  ;  Thorpe,  N.M.,  iii.  19.  Cf.  Lang,  Custom  and  Myth,  p.  145  seq.\ 
J.A.I.,  XXV.  223,  Rev.  G.  Dale,  Customs  of  Natives  of  Bondei  Country. 

2  Powell  and  Magnusson,  Ixxvii.  Here  the  "sending"  is  a  ghost. 
Kirby,  i.  257,  ii.  168  {cf.  an  Esthonian  instance  in  chap,  vi.,  p.  154). 
O'Curry,  Manners  of  Ancient  Irish  (Druidic),  ii.  203.  Nansen, 
Eskimo  Life,  p.  285.  Zulu  sorcerers  bewitch  various  animals  and 
then  send  them  to  injure  their  victims — Callaway,  p.  348.  Danish 
witches  were  beHeved  to  make  a  hare  out  of  an  old  stocking  and  send 


AMULETS  201 

Actual  beliefs  like  these  show  that  the  talking-  and 
acting-  puppets  and  other  objects  of  folk-story  are  not 
the  mere  products  of  the  imagination,  but  the 
reflections  of  the  ideas  which  governed  the  minds  of 
the  people  with  whom  those  tales  arose. 

Another  form  of  fetichism,  degraded  as  compared 
with  the  other,  is  that  in  which  an  immaterial  object 
is  believed  to  have  certain  powers  in  itself,  quite 
apart  from  any  possessing  or  controlling  spirit.  The 
universal  belief  in  amulets,  charms,  etc.,  shows  how 
readily  this  form  of  fetichism  has  found  acceptance. 
But  it  is  derived  from  the  earlier  form  of  fetichism, 
where  the  object  is  controlled  by  a  spirit,  probably 
through  an  intermediate  form,  in  which  the  spirit  does 
not  dwell  in  the  fetich  but  may  be  summoned  by  its 
means.  This  branch  of  fetichism  is  abundantly 
illustrated  from  the  folk-tales  of  the  Arabian  Nig'ktSy 
where  the  talisman,  when  rubbed  or  spoken  to, 
produces  the  genie  or  spirit,  who  is  bound  to  work  its 
owner's  will ;  while  Indian  writers  have  much  to  say 
of  a  talisman  like  the  Tschin-tamani,  a  jewel  with 
the  power  of  producing  whatever  its  owner  sets  his 
heart  on.  A  large  group  of  stories,  Asiatic  and 
European,  belonging  to  the  Aladdin  cycle,  illustrate 
both  the  intermediate  and  the  later  form  of  fetichism.^ 
The  hero  obtains  a  magic  jewel,  box,  ring,  etc., 
sometimes  from  a  grateful  animal,  sometimes  (as  in 
the  Aladdin  story)  by  purchase,  or  by  finding  it 
accidentally.  In  some  versions  of  the  story  (Arabic) 
a  genie  appears  when  the  charm  is  appealed  to,  or,  as 
in  a  Greek  variant,  a  black  man,  who  does  whatever 
the    owner  wishes.      He   corresponds  to   the  spirit 

it  to  steal  milk  from  cattle.  Thorpe,  N.M.^  ii,  192.  The  Lapland 
wizards  sent  magic  flies  and  darts  against  their  enemies,  as  well  as  a 
kind  of  ball.  The  last  was  fatal,  not  only  to  the  victim,  but  to 
anyone  who  came  in  its  way.  Calmet,  Les  Apparitions  des  Esprits^ 
i.  107(1751). 

^  These  are  discussed  in  the  chapter  on  Friendly  Animals,  pp. 


202  INANIMATE  OBJECTS 

controlling  the  fetich  a  distance.  But  frequently  it  is 
enough  to  appeal  to  the  charm  itself,  and  the  wish  is 
at  once  accomplished.  Thus  in  a  Basque  variant  a 
lad  finds  a  snuff-box,  which  says  to  him,  **  What  do 
you  wish  for  ?  "  He  puts  it  to  the  test,  and  finds  that 
it  can  supply  his  wants,  and  ultimately  obtains  a  fine 
castle  and  marries  a  king's  daughter.  The  snuff-box 
falls  into  the  hands  of  his  bride's  mother,  who  by  its 
aid  transports  castle  and  all  to  the  Red  Sea.^  Such 
a  charm  occurs  in  Aino  and  Korean  versions  of  the 
story.  They  are  the  gift  of  a  divine  being  to  the 
owner,  and  in  the  Korean  tale  the  charm  produces 
an  inexhaustible  supply  of  wine.^  These  versions  of 
the  story  represent  the  last  form  of  fetichism,  where 
the  amulet,  talisman,  or  charm  works  of  itself  alone, 
and  no  controlling  spirit  is  in  question.  The  least 
superstitious  among  us  are  still  subject  to  this  form 
of  fetichism,  and  carry  a  lucky  stone  or  coin,  or 
believe  that  a  mascot  brings  them  luck. 

The  magic  swords  oi M'drchen  and  saga  are  fetiches 
of  this  class,  but  at  one  time  were  thought  of  as 
controlled  by  a  spirit.  The  Magyar  tale  of  Prince 
Mirko  tells  how  he  arrived  at  Knight  Mezey's  tent 
and  found  him  asleep,  but  his  sword  was  slashing  in 
all  directions.  Mirko  lay  down  near  him  and  said, 
"Sword,  come  out  of  thy  scabbard ! "  when  his  own 
sword  leaped  forth  and  acted  in  the  same  way.  Next 
morning  the  heroes  joined  forces,  and  their  swords  of 
themselves  killed  innumerable  enemies.^  Some  stories 
of  the  Perseus  group  relate  how  a  weapon  sprang  up 
where  the  fish's  bones  were  planted  in  the  garden  at 
the  same  time  as  the  hero  was  born,  and  with  this 
magic  weapon  he  overcame  the  dragon.*  An  old 
soldier,  in  a  Breton  tale,  found  a  sabre  on  which  were 
the  words,  ''He  who  uses  me  is  always  victorious" ; 
while  in  an  Indian  story  Siva  presented  his  prot^g^ 

^  Webster,  p.  94.  2  Chamberlain,  p.  16.    Allen,  p.  40. 

^  Jones,  p.  66.  ^  See  p.  383,  and  Jones,  p.  243. 


MAGIC  SWORDS  203 


P  Siva  Das,  with  a  sword  which  gave  him  victory, 
protected  him  against  all  dangers,  and  carried  him 
wherever  he  wished  to  go.^  The  hero  of  the 
Esthonian  epic,  the  Kalevipoeg",  had  his  magic  sword 
stolen  by  a  sorcerer,  who  could  scarce  drag  it  off.^  It 
fell  into  a  brook,  whither  the  hero  traced  it  and  asked 
it  how  it  came  there.  It  answered  that  it  was  in  the 
embrace  of  a  fair  water-nymph.  He  reproached  it, 
but  it  replied  that  on  account  of  a  terrible  murder  it 
could  not  return  to  him.  Then  he  commanded  it  to 
speak  to  the  heroes  of  his  race  who  came  thither,  to 
rise  and  go  to  a  hero  as  great  as  himself,  and  to  cut 
off  the  feet  of  the  thief  Such  a  sword  is  mentioned 
in  the  Kalevala  as  belonging  to  Kullervo.  When 
asked  by  him  if  it  delighted  in  human  blood,  it  replied, 
"How  should  I  not  taste  with  pleasure  the  flesh  of 
the  guilty  man,  and  drink  the  blood  of  him  that  is 
infamous,  when  I  taste  the  flesh  and  drink  the  blood 
of  the  innocent?"^  Certain  Japanese  swords,  unlike 
this  conscientious  weapon,  hunger  after  men's  lives 
and  madden  their  owners  so  that  they  kill  others  or 
commit  suicide.*  Ideas  such  as  these  are  found  in 
savage  Africa.  The  Aniya  say  that  the  son  of  the 
first  man  was  attacked  by  people  from  the  mountains, 
when  he  made  fetich  on  his  war-spear  and  sang, 
"My  spear,  go  kill  these  people,"  whereupon  it  went 
forth  and  slew  the  whole  of  the  enemy.^  The  magic 
swords  of  the  heroes  of  classical  and  later  mythology 
and  saga — the  weapons  of  Perseus,  Achilles,  and 
Ulysses,  of  Fionn,  Heimdal,  Charlemagne,  Roland, 
and  Arthur,  of  the  heroes  of  mediaeval  romances  and 

^  Sebillot,  i.  64.     Cosquin,  i.  219. 

-  Cf.  Odin's  Gram,  driven  into  an  ash  till  a  man  should  come 
strong  enough  to  pull  it  out.  In  many  stories  the  modest  hero,  after 
killing  dragons,  giants,  etc.,  leaves  his  sword  stuck  in  the  ground  and 
then  goes  away.  The  king  bids  all  men  come  and  try  to  pull  it  out. 
The  hero  tries  and  succeeds,  and  by  this  means  is  discovered. 

^  Kirby,  i.  75.     Kalevala^  rime  36. 

113.  •'•  Reade,  p.  63. 


204  INANIMATE  OBJECTS 

Eastern  story,  perform  the  same  feats,  and  are  looked 
upon  as  endowed  with  life  and  thought,  even  called 
by  name,  like  Joyeuse  and  Excalibur,  or  like 
Siegfried's  Balmung,  with  which  he  slew  the  gfiants, 
and  which  continued  to  slay  after  its  owner  was  dead.^ 
Conceptions  like  these  date  from  a  time  when 
weapons  were  believed  to  be  controlled  by  a  spirit,  as 
is  stated  in  an  Irish  legend.  Ogma  obtained  Ornai, 
the  sword  of  Tethra,  the  king  of  the  Fomore,  which 
recounted  to  him  the  deeds  it  had  performed,  as  was 
the  custom  of  swords  at  that  time.  For,  says  the 
chronicler,  demons  spoke  from  the  swords,  because 
the  people  worshipped  arms  in  those  days.^  Arms, 
in  effect,  were  powerful  fetiches,  and  the  worship  was 
paid  to  the  indwelling  spirit.  The  Scythians  are 
known  to  have  offered  worship  to  the  sword,  either  for 
itself,  or  as  a  symbol  of  divinity,  while  the  sword  of 
Isonokami  is  mentioned  as  a  worshipful  object  in  the 
Japanese  Ko-ji-ki.  We  can  quite  well  imagine  that 
people  accustomed  to  weapons  of  stone,  would  readily 
suppose  that  there  was  something  magical  in  weapons 
of  bronze  or  iron,  when  those  were  first  seen,  or  so 
long  as  they  were  scarce.  But  with  savages,  weapons 
and  other  articles,  whether  of  metal  or  stone,  are 
credited  with  life.  The  Algonquin  thinks  that  hatchets 
have  ''shadows,"  which  accompany  the  human 
shadow  to  the  spirit  land,  and  in  Fiji  it  is  thought 
that  the  soul  of  the  broken  or  worn-out  axe  or  chisel 
goes  to  Bolotoo  or  Hades,^  while  the  broken 
weapons  found  in  prehistoric  graves  suggest  that 
they  were  broken  in  order  that  their  ''spirits"  might 


^  See  Lady  Verney,  "Mythical  and  Mediaeval  Swords,"  Cont. 
Rev  J  1880.  Burton,  Book  of  the  Sword.  Clouston,  P.T.  and  F.^  i.  43. 
Campbell,  i.  Ixv.  seq.  Cf.  infra^  p.  216,  for  magic  swords  which  go  forth 
to  kill. 

2  O'Curry,  Manners  of  Ancient  Irish,  ii.  254. 

3  Clodd,  Myths  and  Dreams,  p.  211.  For  iron  weapons,  see  p.  339 
infra. 


MAGIC  WANDS  205 

be  free  to  accompany  their  owner's  spirit  to  the  other 
world. 

As  a  last  example  of  fetichism  we  shall  gflance  at 
the  magic  wand  which  figures  in  so  many  folk-tales. 
Sometimes,  as  in  a  Russian  story,  when  passed  from 
one  hand  to  another  it  produces  a  servant  who  does 
the  owner's  bidding-.^  More  usually  it  works  auto- 
matically, and  is  the  property  of  some  supernaturally 
gifted  personage.  Thus  in  many  stories  where  the 
hero  is  set  impossible  tasks  by  an  ogre,  his  daughter 
performs  them  for  him  by  a  touch  of  her  wand,  as  in 
the  Lorraine  story  of  the  Green  Bird,  where  the 
ravelled  skeins  of  thread  and  a  heap  of  feathers  are 
sorted  out  by  a  tap  of  the  magic  rod.^  A  Greek 
story  relates  how  a  youth  had  obtained  from  his 
grandmother  a  switch  which  had  the  power  of  making- 
anything  which  it  touches  speak.  A  certain  dumb 
princess  is  to  be  the  reward  of  the  suitor  who  will 
make  her  speak.  Many  have  tried  and  failed,  and  have 
been  put  to  death.  Our  hero  came,  leaned  the  switch 
against  the  girl,  and  at  once  she  began  to  chatter.^ 
Sometimes  a  mere  tap  on  the  ground  with  such  a 
wand  produces  splendid  results.  Thus  the  heroine 
of  a  Basque  story  did  so,  and  said,  ''  I  will  that  on  this 
spot  is  built  a  beautiful  hotel,"  and  at  once  it  appeared 
before  her.  Such  wands  are  common  in  Eastern  tales. 
Taj-ul-Muluk  possessed  a  rod  cut  from  a  magic  tree 
whose  wood  broke  the  strongest  bodies,  and  with  its 
aid  he  shattered  the  fetters  of  a  beautiful  fairy.  Other 
rods,  of  silver  and  gold,  have  the  power  of  life  and 
death  and,  in  Indian  tales,  are  found  lying  by  the  side 
of  maidens  captured  by  rakshasas.  The  hero  finds 
the  maiden  dead,  but  taking  the  golden  rod  lets  it  fall 
accidentally  upon  her,  when  she  is  restored  to  life,  or, 
in  other  cases,  her  head  is  restored  to  her  body.  The 
silver  rod  is  used  by  her  captor  to  kill  her  when  he 

^  Dietrich,  No.  5,  ^  Cosquin,  i.  104.  ^  Garnett,  ii.  138. 


206  INANIMATE  OBJECTS 

goes  away,  the  golden  rod  to  restore  her  on  his  return.^ 
When  petrifaction  occurs  in  folk- tales  (e.g-.y  in  the 
sequel  to  the  Perseus  cycle,  in  stories  of  the  quest  for 
magic  birds,  water,  etc.),  it  is  usually  done  by  the 
witch  striking-  the  hero  with  her  magic  wand.^  But 
a  kindlier  witch,  in  the  Scots  story  of  the  Red  Etin, 
gives  the  hero  a  magic  wand  to  quell  the  dreadful 
beasts  which  he  will  encounter.^ 

Such  sticks  or  wands  are  actually  believed  in  and 
used  by  primitive  peoples.  The  natives  of  British 
Guiana  know  of  a  mysterious  plant,  a  stick  of  which 
pointed  at  any  living  creature  proves  fatal  to  it. 
Pointing-sticks  are  thus  used  by  the  Australian  black 
fellows,  and  as  they  form  the  most  remarkable 
instance  of  actual  magic  wands  known  to  me,  I  shall 
describe  their  use.  The  form  of  the  wand  varies,  but 
the  commonest  kind  is  made  of  stick  or  bone, 
sharpened  at  one  end,  and  covered  with  bird's  down, 
or  otherwise  ornamented.  The  owner  takes  his  wand 
into  the  bush,  and  placing  it  in  the  ground,  mutters 
horrible  curses  over  it  against  his  enemy.  ''  May 
your  heart  be  rent  asunder.  May  your  backbone  be 
split  open  and  your  ribs  torn  asunder.  May  your 
head  and  throat  be  split  open."  Then  he  takes  the 
stick  and  jerks  it  over  his  shoulder  several  times  in 
the  direction  of  his  victim,  repeating  the  same  curses. 
By  this  means  the  evil  magic  in  the  wand  goes  into 
him,  and  soon  after  he  sickens  and  dies.  With  some 
of  the  tribes  a  form  of  wand  still  more  potent  is  made 
out  of  a  dead  man's  bone.  All  the  natives  fear  these 
pointing-sticks,  whose  magic  powers  are  the  result  of 
a  charm  sung  over  them,  the  words  of  which  are  in 
an  archaic  language  unknown  to  those  who  use  it.* 
Generally  speaking,   the  shaman  or  medicine-man, 

1  Webster,  p.  127.    Clouston,  E.R.,  pp.  298,  305.    Day,  pp.  224, 
251. 

2  See  pp.  156-57.  ^  Chambers,  p.  89. 

'♦  Spencer  and  Gillen,  Northern  Tribes^  p.  456  seq. 


MAGIC  RODS  207 

wherever  found,  makes  use  of  some  rod,  staff,  or 
weapon,  in  performing-  his  ceremonies.  Even  now  in 
Thessalia  the  peasants  say  that  the  wizard  can 
destroy  buildings  with  his  rod,  or  make  the  stars 
come  down  from  heaven.  Taoist  priests  in  China 
each  possess  a  mag"ic  sword,  which  takes  the  place  of 
the  wizard's  rod  elsewhere,  and  of  which  extraordinary 
tales  are  told.^  So  Finnish  sorcerers  make  use  of 
metal  rods  and  weapons,  and  Red  Indian  medicine-men 
and  Eskimo  shamans  have  sticks  which  kill  animals 
or  men  when  pointed  at  them,  or  are  believed  to  turn 
into  canoes  and  other  things  when  commanded  ;  while, 
in  Guiana,  a  calabash  adorned  with  feathers  and  con- 
taining several  pebbles  serves  to  scare  off  or  attract 
spirits  as  required.^  These  magical  properties  of  actual 
sorcerers  are  regarded  with  awe  by  the  people,  and  in 
them  may  be  seen  the  origin  of  the  magic  wands  of 
our  tales,  owned  by  witches  or  persons  with  super- 
natural parentage,  or  gifted  to  heroes.  As  to  striking 
the  ground  with  the  wand  and  producing  marvellous 
results,  it  should  be  noted  that  this  is  a  frequent 
mode  of  appealing  to  the  spirits  below  the  earth,  who 
are  then  supposed  to  do  what  the  striker  wishes. 
This  is  done  in  New  Guinea  to  recall  the  spirit  of  life 
to  the  sick;  in  Zululand  by  those  who  inquire  of 
diviners.^ 

While  explaining  our  folk-tale  incidents  by  the 
actual  fetichistic  beliefs  of  savage  and  primitive  folk, 
based  upon  what  would  commonly  be  called  a  super- 
stitious   outlook    upon    the  world,  and  a  complete 

^  Garaett,  ii.,  i.     Giles,  i.  128. 

2  Abercromby, /"r^-  and  Proto-Historic  Finns,  i.  345,  353.  Leland, 
A,L.,  pp.  127,  190.  Brett,  p.  23.  Such  magical  rods  were  said  to 
be  given  by  Satan  to  mediaeval  witches  for  the  purpose  of  injuring 
cattle.     Reuss,  La  Sorcilre,  pp.  59,  73. 

3  Romilly,  p.  91.  Callaway,  p.  280  seq.  History  repeats  itself, 
and  we  hear  of  a  Moidart  Macdonald,  pressed  by  a  hard-hearted  factor 
for  his  rent,  appealing  to  his  dead  chief  by  striking  the  earth  and 
calling  aloud  to  him. 


208  INANIMATE  OBJECTS 

ignorance  of  cause  and  effect,  the  possibility  of  the 
reality  of  some  fetichistic  phenomena  should  not  be 
overlooked.  The  abundant  evidence  collected  in, 
e,£^.y  the  volumes  of  the  Psychical  Research  Society's 
Proceedings,  in  Sir  Wm.  Crooke's  writings,  and  in 
Myers's  Human  Personality,  show  that  there  are 
many  phenomena,  chiefly  connected  with  the  move- 
ment of  material  objects  without  contact,  yet  un- 
explained, and,  therefore,  still  classed  under  the  X 
region  of  facts.  No  one,  again,  except  those  who 
are  unaware  of  the  mass  of  evidence,  now  doubts  the 
reality  of  hypnotism,  telepathy,  clairvoyance,  crystal- 
gazing,  trance-utterance,  etc.,  in  modern  times.  We 
find,  however,  that  these  and  kindred  phenomena  are 
known  to  and  used  by  savages,  and  especially  by 
medicine-men,  just  as  they  were  by  mediaeval  witches.^ 
They  are,  in  fact,  common  occurrences  among  them. 
Is  this  because  savages  are,  in  certain  respects,  more 
sensitive  than  we?  At  all  events,  it  suggests  that 
those  phenomena  of  the  X  region,  especially  action 
on  matter  a  distance,  or  telikinesis,  may  also  be  well 
known  to  them.  Indeed,  the  more  the  X  region  is 
studied,  and  the  more  savage  belief  is  laid  bare,  the 
better  do  we  see  that  the  latter  is  not  based  so  entirely 
on  superstition  as  is  commonly  supposed.  Thus  one 
branch  of  fetichism,  the  use  of  amulets  to  cure  disease, 
has  been  found  by  experiment  to  be  efficacious  in 
nervous  diseases  by  virtue  of  the  continual  contact 
acting  as  a  reminder  to  the  subliminal  self,  which  was 
thus  able,   in  some  unexplained  way,   to  keep  the 

^  I  append  a  few  references  to  savage  use  of  these  phenomena : 
hypnotism,  Callaway,  p.  431  ;  telepathy,  ibid.,  J.A.I.,  i.  163  ;  clair- 
voyance, Rink,  p.  Ill  ;  crystal-gazing,  Reade,  p.  542,  Ling  Roth, 
i.  274  ;  trance-utterance,  Myers,  H.P.,  ii.  200.  In  one  of  Dr  Nassau's 
"  Tales  of  Fetich  based  on  Fact "  we  hear  of  two  men  who  could  com- 
municate with  one  another  d,  distance,  and  summon  each  other  when 
required  —  Nassau,  p.  318.  For  mediaeval  witches,  cf.  Gurney, 
Phantasms  of  Living,  "  Note  on  Witchcraft "  ;  Reuss,  La  Sorciere, 
passim,  etc.,  etc. 


THE  X  REGION  209 

nervous  disturbance  in  check. ^  Granting",  then,  that 
material  objects  can  be  moved  without  contact  in 
presence  of  the  medium,  savage  or  civilised,  it  will 
readily  be  seen  how  such  phenomena  would  be 
exploited  by  the  medicine-man,  as  it  is  by  modern 
mediums,  and  simulated  by  sleight-of-hand  or  by 
fraud.  These  phenomena,  real  or  fraudulent,  would, 
however,  act  as  buttresses  to  the  already  existing 
belief  in  fetichism.  A  few  examples  of  savage  in- 
cursions into  the  X  region  may  now  be  given. 
Callaway  gives  an  account  of  the  procedure  at  divina- 
tion in  Natal.  The  diviner  has  certain  sticks  lying 
on  the  ground.  These  sticks  begin  to  leap  about 
and  to  fix  themselves  upon  the  anxious  inquirer  on 
that  part  of  the  body  which  is  diseased  in  the  patient 
for  whose  benefit  the  inquiry  is  made.  Certain  bones 
are  each  called  the  man-bone,  cow-bone,  etc.,  and  if 
inquiry  is  made  about  a  man  the  man-bone  begins 
to  jump  about,  if  a  cow,  the  cow-bone.  Dr  Callaway 
suggests  sleight-of-hand  as  an  explanation,  though 
it  is  far  from  obvious.  The  sticks  also  point  in  the 
direction  of  a  doctor,  who  can  heal  the  patient.  Reade 
speaks  of  the  fetich-men  in  Matiamoo  (Central 
Africa)  making  wooden  puppets  which  can  spring- 
several  yards.  Similar  facts  are  also  reported  from 
New  Zealand  as  to  divining  rods.  All  alike  suggest,  if 
not  actual  telikinesis,  at  least  a  certain  acquaintance 
with  it  among-  savages.  Further  inquiry  in  this 
direction  might  produce  interesting  results.  Many 
cases,  however,  may  be  due  to  mere  clever  conjuring : 
shamans  among  the  Menomini  Indians  will  sit  in 
front  of  little  wooden  figures  which  dance  to  their 
chanting ;  the  operator  is  believed  to  have  power  to 
make  them  dance,  the  motion  being-  caused  by  his 
manido.     In  reality  the  figures  are  moved  by  means 

^  Journal,    S.P.R.,    vi.    152 ;    Myers,    Human    Personality,    ii, 
559. 


210  INANlMATEi  OBJECTS 

of  threads  attached  to  the  jugglers  toes.^  But 
whether  genuine  or  feigned,  the  movements  of 
material  objects  were  bound  to  enhance  the  belief  in 
fetichism,  in  a  spirit  controlling  and  dwelling  in  such 
objects.  Other  instances  of  movement  are  of  a 
different  character.  We  are  told  of  Negro,  Melanesian, 
and  Siberian  sorcerers  that  certain  rods  placed  in 
their  own  hands,  or  in  those  of  others,  move  as  if 
living,  and  draw  them  in  the  direction  of  a  suspected 
thief,  or  toward  the  region  inhabited  by  spirits  ;  or 
the  rod  itself  will  twist  violently  hither  and  thither 
when  the  name  of  some  particular  departed  friend  is 
named  along  with  many  others.^  These  are  but  the 
phenomena  of  the  divining  rod  of  ancient,  mediaeval, 
and  modern  times,  and  now  proved  by  Prof  Barrett's 
experiments  to  be  beyond  the  reach  of  cavil. ^  In  all 
we  may  see  an  example  of  hypersesthesia,  of  the 
subliminal  self  acting  on  knowledge  known  to  it  alone, 
or  in  accordance  with  its  deep-seated  beliefs  and 
fancies,  and  controlling  the  subject's  movements 
unconsciously  to  himself. 

(3)  Some  of  these  illustrations  of  the  fetich  belief 
approach  very  near  the  principle  of  sympathetic 
magic,  and,  indeed,  it  is  difficult  to  draw  the  line 
between  these  two  branches  of  primitive  belief  But 
in  some  tales  there  are  clear  instances  of  the  magical 

1  Callaway,/.^./.,  i.  178  ;  R.S.A.,  p.  330.  Reade,  p.  333.  Tylor, 
P.C.,  i.  125.     Bureau  of  Ethnology,  Fourteenth  Annual  Report^  p.  98. 

2  Deniker,  Races  of  Man^  p.  217.     Codrington,  p.  210. 

^  Barrett,  On  the  So-called  Divining  Rod.  Cf.  Chevreuil,  La 
Baguette  Divinatoirej  Lang's  chapter  in  Custom  and  Myth;  and 
Baring-Gould's  essay  in  Curious  Myths.  Mr  Lang  has  discussed 
fetichism  and  its  relation  to  such  phenomena  in  his  Making  of 
Religion^  p.  159  seq.  M.  Lefebure,  "  Les  Origines  des  Fetichisme,'' 
Melusine,  vol.  viii.,  thinks  fetichism  may  have  arisen  through  actual 
telikinetic  force  in  thing^i,  which  he  calls  "  le  magnetisme,"  and  cites 
various  instances.  For  ordinary  divination  with  sticks  where  no 
occult  phenomena  are  involved,  see  Napier,  Superstitions  of  West  of 
Scotland^  p.  108. 


THE  MAGIC  HAIRS  211 

theory  of  things.  Animals  frequently  present  the 
hero  with  one  of  their  hairs,  feathers,  or  scales,  with 
instructions  to  touch  or  burn  it  when  in  need,  and  they 
will  at  once  appear.  These  stories  are  sometimes 
found  in  the  Treacherous  Brothers  or  in  the  Separable 
Soul  cycle,  discussed  elsewhere  in  this  work.^  The 
episode  in  a  Greek  variant  runs  thus.  When  the 
hero  has  been  abandoned  on  the  mountain,  three 
horses,  white,  red,  and  green,  appear,  and  carry  him 
to  the  plain,  where  each  gives  him  a  hair.  In  the 
sequel,  by  burning  these,  the  horses  at  once  appear 
and  bring  him  the  treasures  desired  by  the  three 
princesses  whom  he  had  rescued  from  the  mountain.^ 
In  other  cases  we  have  a  variation  of  this  idea ;  by 
making  use  of  the  hairs,  scales,  etc.,  the  hero  is 
enabled  to  assume  the  form  of  the  respective  animals 
at  the  psychological  moment.^  Kashmir  and  Berber 
stories  illustrate  the  more  primitive  form  of  the 
episode.  In  the  former  a  tigress,  relieved  of  an 
abscess  by  the  hero,  gives  him  a  tuft  of  her  fur,  which 
he  has  to  show  to  the  sun  (equivalent  of  burning) 
when  he  wishes  her  help.  The  Berber  tale  runs  thus. 
Hamed  ben  Ceggad  was  sent  by  a  king  to  bring  the 
woman  with  silver  attire.  Before  she  goes  with  him, 
her  brothers,  three  ogres,  give  her  a  feather  which, 
when  anyone  wishes  her  to  do  anything  against  her 
will,  she  must  cast  into  the  fire  and  they  will  appear. 
When  the  king  wished  to  marry  her,  she  acted  on 
their  advice ;  they  came,  killed  the  king,  and  gave 
her  to  Hamed.  Obviously,  in  the  earliest  form  of  this 
story  the  ogres  gave  their  sister  one  of  their  own 
hairs.     Another  Berber  story  tells  how  half  a  cock 

1  See  pp.  135,351- 

-  Hahn,  No.  26.  In  a  variant  a  drako  gives  the  hero  three  horse 
hairs,  which,  when  struck  lightly,  produce  him  and  his  two  brothers — 
Garnett,  ii.  T].  For  a  Servian  variant,  see  V  ouk,  No.  2  ;  Mijatovich, 
p.  53.  Here  a  fish,  fox,  and  wolf  give  the  hero  a  scale  and  one  of  their 
hairs.  Rubbing  them  gently  in  time  of  need  will  bring  them  to  his 
aid.  3  Seg  p  239. 


212  INANIMATE  OBJECTS 

went  on  pilgrimage  and  met  a  jackal,  lion,  and  boar, 
each  of  which  gave  it  a  hair.  Three  times  the  bird  is 
imprisoned,  and  each  time  it  burns  a  hair,  when  its 
owner  appears  and  sets  it  free.  There  are  Albanian, 
French,  and  Slavonic  versions  of  this  story,  but  only 
in  the  two  latter  does  the  hair-burning  occur.^ 

The  same  incident  occurs  in  Eastern  tales.  A 
female  div  gave  two  of  her  hairs  to  Tdj-ul-Multjk. 
**  When  you  need  me,  put  this  hair  in  the  fire,  and  I 
will  hasten  to  you  with  a  thousand  divs."  Once,  in  a 
jungle  full  of  wild  beasts  the  hero  placed  a  hair  on  the 
camp-fire.  A  quarter  of  it  was  not  consumed  before 
the  fairy  with  her  escort  appeared,  and  raised  a 
splendid  palace  on  this  very  spot  for  Tdj.  The 
second  hair  was  made  use  of  later  on,  with  like 
results.^  A  different  but  analogous  episode  occurs  in 
a  Chinese  tale.  A  girl  called  Yi  gives  her  lover  a 
slipper,  saying  that  she  had  worn  it,  and  that  whenever 
he  shook  it  she  would  know  that  he  wanted  to  see 
her,  and  would  immediately  appear.^  In  the  Pancha- 
tantra  and  also  in  the  Arabian  Nights  a  grateful 
serpent  gave  the  hero  three  of  its  scales  which,  when 
burned,  would  bring  the  serpent  to  his  aid.* 

All  these  are  excellent  illustrations  of  the  primitive 
theory  of  sympathetic  magic  found  among  all  savage 
races,  and  also  as  a  frequent  survival  among  the 
peasantry  of  civilised  countries.  This  theory,  based 
on  a  mistaken  application  of  the  law  of  cause  and  effect, 
insisted  that  if  two  things  had  ever  been  in  contact, 
the  one  would  be  able  to  influence  the  other  even 
when  removed  to  a  distance.  The  one  was  In 
sympathy  with  the  other,  because  of  that  contact,  or 
often  because  the  smaller  of  the  two  had  once  been 
part  of  the  larger  whole.     The  extent  to  which  this 

1  Knowles,  p.  3.     Basset,  pp.  56,  83.     Carnoy,  Litt.  orale  de  la 
Picardie^  214.     Krauss,  Sagen  def  Sud  Slaven^  i«  95- 

2  Clouston,  p.  268  seq.  ^  Giles,  i.  170. 

*  Benfey,  i.  203.     Arabian  Nights^  Story  of  Zobeide. 


UNCONSIDERED  TRIFLES  213 

conception  dominates  savage  and  primitive  thought 
everywhere,  besides  occurring"  in  curious  ways  at 
higher  levels,  will  only  be  credited  by  those  who  have 
studied  the  enormous  mass  of  evidence.^  Our  purpose 
will  here  be  satisfied  by  referring  to  that  branch  of 
the  theory  which  illustrates  the  stories  in  question. 
Thus,  as  we  have  already  said,  all  savages  believe  that 
their  nail-clippings,  hair-cuttings,  and  such  like  must 
be  carefully  hidden  or  destroyed,  for  if  an  enemy  got 
hold  of  these  or  of  any  part  of  one's  raiment  or 
ornaments,  he  would  be  able  to  work  harm  to  the 
original  owner.  By  their  means  the  owner  would  be 
in  his  power  and  at  his  mercy ;  whatever  he  did  to 
the  part  would  be  done  to  the  whole.  If  the  clippings 
were  buried  in  the  ground  so  that  they  might 
gradually  rot  away,  the  owner  would  die  of  a  wasting 
disease.  The  part,  if  not  greater  than,  is  at  least 
equal  to  the  whole.  Our  stories  are  the  literary 
presentation  of  this  popular  and  universal  theory. 
The  grateful  animals,  the  friendly  div,  the  Chinese 
lover,  all  tacitly  put  themselves  in  the  hero's  power 
when  they  give  him  one  of  their  hairs,  etc.  They  are 
not  hurt  by  the  hair  being  burnt,  but  they  are  bound 
to  appear.  According  to  the  theory,  the  part  is  in  all 
respects  like  the  whole,  and  will  be  possessed  by  all  its 
capacities  and  powers.  We  have  already  seen  this  in 
the  case  of  the  saliva  which  talks  ;  it  talks,  and  talks 
well,  because  it  is  part  of  a  human  being.  So  in  a 
Kafir  tale,  Sikulume  neglects  the  warning  which  a 
mouse  gives  him.  The  mouse  then  tells  him  to  kill  it 
and  keep  its  skin,  which  continues  to  speak  and 
advise  him  just  as  its  original  owner  had  done.^  A 
Hessian  story  also  illustrates  this.  A  princess  goes 
with  her  maid  to  the  court  of  the  king  she  is  to  marry. 
Before  leaving,  her  mother  gives  her,  in  a  vessel,  three 
drops  of  her  blood  which  speak  and  are  meant  to  take 

1  A  large  number  of  instances  are  given  in  Frazer,  Golden  Bough, 
vol.  i,  '  Theal,  p.  8i, 


214  INANIMATE  OBJECTS 

care  of  her.  But  she  loses  the  vessel,  and  then  the 
servant  personates  her.^  We  have  seen  already  how- 
drops  of  blood  placed  on  a  puppet  make  it  speak  in  the 
voice  of  the  owner.  The  rings,  jewels,  charms,  which 
produce  at  will  a  being  who  obeys  orders,  have  been 
shown  to  be  forms  of  fetichism.  But  they  might  also 
be  classed  under  the  heading  of  sympathetic  magic  : 
the  ring  produces  the  being  because  it  had  once  been 
in  contact  with  him.  This  is  certainly  the  case  in  a 
Kashmir  tale,  where  a  genie  gives  a  ring  from  his 
finger  to  the  hero,  and  bids  him  show  it  to  the  fire, 
when  he  will  at  once  appear.^ 

(4)  In  other  groups  of  tales  the  magical  objects 
have  been  suggested  by  various  primitive  beliefs,  but 
some  at  least  owe  their  origin  to  mimetic  magic.  Few 
stories  are  so  widespread  as  that  of  the  poor  man, 
usually  with  a  large  family,  who  obtains  certain 
magical  objects  from  a  gifted  human  being,  a  super- 
natural personage,  even  le  bon  dieu  himself;  from  his 
master,  from  the  Wind  or  Frost  personified,  after 
they  have  damaged  his  crops ;  or  from  an  animal. 
In  the  English  version  the  first  gift  is  an  ass  which 
drops  silver  or  gold  ;  it  is  stolen  by  an  innkeeper,  who 
replaces  it  by  an  ordinary  ass.  Next  Jack  obtains 
a  table  which  automatically  provides  a  rich  meal 
when  desired.  This  also  is  stolen.  Lastly,  he  gets 
a  cudgel  which  beats  of  its  own  accord.  The  inn- 
keeper falls  a  victim  to  it,  and  the  cudgel  does  not 
leave  off  until  he  has  restored  the  stolen  articles. 
There  are  Italian,  Russian,  and  Deccan  variants  of 
this  form  of  the  story.^    In  many  others  a  table-cloth 

1  Grimm,  No.  89.   For  placing  charms  in  the  fire,  see  F.L.J.,  ii.  104. 

2  Knowles,  p.  473.  Cf.  a  German  story,  where  the  hero  takes  a  ring 
from  a  dwarfs  finger  and  finds  that  by  his  turning  it,  several  spirits 
appear  to  do  his  bidding — Grimm,  No.  166. 

3  Henderson,  p.  327.  Crane,  p.  123.  Gubernatis,  Z.M.^  ii.  262. 
Miss  Frere,  No  12, 


THE  MAGIC  ANIMAL  215 

or  a  napkin  takes  the  place  of  the  table,  and  produces 
a  banquet  in  the  same  way  (Norse,  Lorraine);^ 
while  the  animal  which  gives  gold  is  sometimes  a 
ram  (Norse,  Czech),  a  sheep  (Magyar,  Poland, 
Lithuania),  a  horse  (Venice),  a  mule  (Breton),  a  he- 
goat  (Lithuania,  Norway),  a  she-goat  (Austria),  a 
cock  (Oldenburg),  a  hen  (Tyrol,  Ireland).^  In  other 
versions  we  have  two  magic  boxes,  bottles,  sacks,  or 
pots,  one  of  which  produces  gold  or  food,  the  second 
armed  men,  who  beat  the  thief  till  he  restores  the 
first  gift.  This  occurs  in  Italian,  Irish,  Esthonian, 
and  Bengali  tales. ^  Austrian  and  Russian  tales 
bring  the  men  out  of  a  magic  hat  or  magic  cask.* 
Here  is  a  Syriac  version.  A  fox  received  a  viand- 
producing  dish  and  an  ass  which  made  gold.  Break- 
ing the  command  by  showing  them  to  his  wife,  he 
has  his  gifts  taken  by  the  king  of  the  foxes.  Next 
he  gets  a  sack  from  which  leap  two  giants,  who  kill 
his  wife,  the  fox-king,  and  their  go-between.^  As 
told  in  Kumaun,  the  story  runs  that  the  hero  receives 
from  four  serpents  a  bed  which  transports  its  owner 
wherever  he  wishes  to  go,  a  bag  which  supplies 
unlimited  rupees,  a  food-producing  cup,  and  a  spoon 
which  gives  anything  asked  for.  These  are  stolen 
by  his  hostess  in  the  usual  way ;  then  the  hero  tells 
the  serpents,  which  give  him  a  club  which  beats  and 
a  cord  which  binds  when  commanded,  and  by  their 


*  Cosquin,  i.  50,  ii.  168.     Dasent,  p.  250  ;  Thorpe,  Y.T.S.,  p.  326. 

2  /^uMj  Dasent,  p.  263  ;  Waldau,  p.  41.  Sheep^  Jones,  p.  161  ; 
Leger,  No.  17  ;  Schleicher,  p.  105.  Horse^  Bernoni,  i.,  No.  9.  Mule, 
Melusine,  1877,  p.  129.  He-goat^  Leskien,  No.  30  ;  Asbjoernsen,  i., 
No.  7.  She-goat^  Vernaleken,  No.  11.  Cock,  Strackerjan,  ii.  312. 
Hen,  Schneller,  No.  15  ;  Kennedy,  ii.  25. 

3  F.L.R.,  i.  204.  Croker,  "Legend  of  Bottle  Hill."  Kirby,  ii.  71. 
Day,  p.  53.  Mediaeval  saints,  as  well  as  the  holy  men  of  Islam  and 
Buddhism,  were  reputed  to  have  the  power  of  producing  a  limitless 
food  supply.     Cf.  Bdrenger-Feraud,  ii.  246  seq.  for  details. 

*  Vernaleken,  No.  1 1  ;  Dietrich,  No.  8. 
^  Prym  and  Socin,  p.  343. 


216  INANIMATE  OBJECTS 

means  he  recovers  his  treasures.^  The  story  is  even 
found  amongf  the  Ashantis ;  probably  it  reached 
them  in  longr  distant  ages.  Anansee  (the  spider) 
found  a  pot  which  was  always  full  of  food.  Taking: 
it  home  he  regaled  himself  in  private,  till  his  children 
found  out  the  secret,  enjoyed  a  hearty  meal,  and 
then  broke  the  pot.  Anansee  was  highly  disgusted, 
but  soon  found  a  whip  which  began  to  beat  him 
when  he  called  it  ''whip."  He  hung  it  up  at  home, 
where  his  children,  curious  as  ever,  discovered  it  and 
each  received  a  sound  beating.  But  Anansee  never 
recovered  his  magic  pot.^ 

We  may  suppose  that  the  magic  cudgel  occurred 
in  the  more  primitive  forms  of  the  story,  and  that 
the  boxes  out  of  which  leap  armed  men  are  a  later 
improvement.  Such  weapons  have  already  been 
discussed  ;  we  have  now  to  look  at  the  food-producing 
table,  or  table-cloth,  or  napkin,  and  the  gold-produc- 
ing animal.  Before  doing  so,  let  us  glance  at  some 
stories  of  a  more  tragic  nature.  The  hero  first  comes 
into  possession  of  a  cup  which  produces  all  sorts  of 
dishes.  He  meets  a  dervish,  and  exchanges  the  cup 
for  a  knife  which  kills  when  ordered.  He  bids  it  kill 
the  dervish,  and  thus  gets  back  his  cup.  In  the 
same  way  he  obtains  a  cap  of  invisibility,  and  then  a 
flute  which  restores  the  dead  to  life.  On  his  return 
the  king  deprives  him  of  his  cup ;  he  sends  his  knife, 
which  kills  the  king's  guards  and  threatens  the 
monarch  with  death  if  he  does  not  restore  the  cup. 
He  then  bargains  with  the  king  to  restore  the  dead 
guards  for  a  large  sum  of  money ;  but  the  king  very 
sensibly  says,  *'  What  do  you  want  with  money  when 
you  are  so  clever.  I  will  give  thee  my  daughter  to 
wife  instead."^    This  is  the  Greek  version  ;  there  are 

^  Minaef,  No.  12.     For  an  Indian  variant,  see  Stokes,  No.  7. 
2  Cosquin,  ii.  170. 

^  Garnett,  ii.  130.     Cf.  Dozon,  p.  220,  for  similar  incidents  in  a 
story  of  the  Aladdin  type. 


A  NEGRO  TALE  217 

many  others,  in  which  the  magic  articles  vary  and  the 
sequel  of  the  story  is  different.  The  Bohemian 
variant  has  a  food-giving  table,  a  bagpipe  producing 
soldiers,  and  a  sack  which  supplies  mighty  castles. 
Grimm's  German  version  has  the  table,  a  knapsack 
with  soldiers,  a  hat  which  causes  shots  to  be  fired, 
and  a  horn  which,  like  the  Hebrew  trumpets,  over- 
throws the  strongest  cities  when  sounded.  A  wishing 
stone,  a  magic  sword,  and  a  piece  of  felt  which 
restores  to  life,  occur  in  a  Georgian  variant.  A 
Kalmuk  story  has  a  flask  which  gives  meat  and 
cakes,  a  magic  sword,  a  hammer  which  causes  an 
iron  wall  to  spring  up  when  it  is  beaten  on  the 
ground,  and  a  sack  which,  when  shaken,  produces 
rain.^ 

One  of  Dr  Nassau's  West  African  tales  has  some 
resemblance  to  those  of  this  and  the  previous  group. 
Jeki,  the  son  of  a  king,  is  an  incorrigible  thief;  to 
him  his  dead  grandfather  appears  in  a  dream  and 
bids  him  come  to  his  town  and  be  cured  of  this  vice. 
On  the  way  he  meets  various  ghosts,  embodied  in 
curious  shapes,  fighting.  To  all  of  these  he  gives 
food  and  obtains  their  blessing,  like  the  heroes  of 
several  tales  of  the  Youngest  Son  cycle.  When  he 
has  arrived  at  his  grandfather's,  the  old  man  takes 
out  Jeki's  heart  and  cleanses  it  of  the  desire  to  steal. 
Then  he  gives  him  a  pestle  which  will  bring  him 
whatever  he  wishes  for,  but  he  must  take  care  never 
to  speak  or  hear  the  word  ''salt."  Should  he  do  so, 
however,  there  is  a  secret  remedy  to  undo  the  evil 
that  will  follow.  Jeki  returns  home  cured,  and 
obtains  rich  food,  wealth,  and  lands  from  his  pestle ; 
ships  come  to  trade  whenever  he  wishes  for  them ; 
and  he  takes  precedence  of  his  brothers.  Meanwhile, 
no  one  has  pronounced  the  fatal  word,  but  Jeki  is 
suspicious  of  his  half-brothers  and  causes  the  next 

^  Leger,  No.  2.  Grimm,  No.  56.  Wardrop,  p.  11.  Busk,  Sagas^ 
p.  82. 


218  INANIMATE  OBJECTS 

ships  to  come  with  a  cargo  of  salt.  They  at  once 
rush  up  to  him,  shouting  "salt."  Jeki  makes  his 
preparations,  for  his  death  is  at  hand,  and  bids  his 
wives  open  a  certain  box  on  the  day  his  successor  is 
crowned.  The  box  contains  a  handkerchief  which  he 
rubs  all  over  his  body  and  then  replaces  in  the  box. 
Finally  he  is  drowned,  and  his  half-brother  takes  his 
place.  But  when  the  wives  come  to  open  the  box 
and  unfold  the  handkerchief,  lo,  Jeki  stands  suddenly 
by  their  side,  and  going-  to  his  father  bids  him 
choose  between  his  half-brother  and  himself.  Jeki 
is,  of  course,  chosen,  and  the  jealous  brother  is 
drowned.^ 

In  a  third  group  of  tales  the  hero  meets  some 
people  quarrelling  over  the  possession  of  certain 
magic  objects.  These  are  (Italian,  German),  a  purse 
which  always  gives  money  or  a  magic  sword,  boots 
of  swiftness,  and  a  hat  of  invisibility.^  The  Greek 
version  has,  besides  sword  and  hat,  a  poplar  which 
will  carry  one  anywhere,  replaced  in  Indian  and 
Kashmir  variants  by  a  bed  or  a  chair  with  the  same 
power;  in  addition,  the  Indian  version  has  a  bag 
which  supplies  all  wants,  and  a  stick  and  rope  which 
beat  and  bind  when  ordered ;  the  Kashmir  a  food- 
producing  dish,  collyrium,  which,  rubbed  on  the  eyes, 
makes  one  invisible,  and  an  old  garment,  the  pockets 
of  which  produce  all  sorts  of  metals.^  A  Kalmuk 
story  has  a  cap  of  invisibility  and  boots  of  swiftness.* 
The  hero  usually  obtains  these  by  setting  the 
claimants  to  run  a  race ;  meanwhile,  he  puts  on  the 
shoes  of  swiftness  or  sits  down  on  the  magic  bed  or 
chair,  and  hey  presto!  disappears  with  the  other 
treasures.  There  is  also  a  Chinese  version,  where 
the  hero  gets  from  two  men  whom  he  finds  fighting 

1  Nassau,  p.  378.  2  j?x.R.,  i.  211.     Clouston,  P.T.,  i.  78. 

^  Garnett,  ii.  225.     Clouston,  i.  83.    Knowles,  p.  86.    Cf.  Steel  and 
Temple,  pp.  281,  289. 
*  Clouston,  i.  82. 


MIMETIC  MAGIC  219 

for  it,  a  stone,  which  when  swallowed,  makes  the 
possessor  brings  forth  gold  from  his  mouth.  ^ 

Confining  ourselves  here  to  the  food-producing- 
table,  or  cloth,  the  purse  which  is  always  full,  and 
such  like  desirable  objects,  we  may  see  in  them  the 
folk-tale  reproduction  of  the  curious  customs  of 
mimetic  magic.  By  this  the  mere  imitation  of  an 
effect  is  thought  capable  of  producing  the  effect  itself 
Imitate  the  action  of  rain  falling,  and  you  will  produce 
rain  in  time  of  drought.  Abstain  from  drinking  or 
washing,  and  you  will  cause  the  rainfall  to  cease.  Set 
a  blazing  wheel  rolling  down  the  hill,  and  you  will 
encourage  the  sun  to  shine  as  it  rolls  round  the 
heavens.  Copy  the  details  of  a  hunt  in  mimic 
ceremony,  and  you  will  have  good  hunting.  All  these 
things  are  actually  done  by  savages  everywhere,  as 
they  were  done  by  our  ancestors  long  ago.  So  now 
Australian  blacks  expect  to  increase  the  food-supply 
of  witchetty-grubs  by  going  through  a  series  of  actions 
imitative  of  the  grub  emerging  from  the  chrysalis. 
The  objects  of  our  tales  have  all  a  connection  with 
the  things  which  they  supply — table  or  cover  with 
food,  purse  with  money.  /  Knowing  the  wide  range 
and  curious  applications  of  mimetic  magic,  we  may 
suppose  that  such  objects  are  the  imaginative 
reproductions  of  ceremonies  gone  through  for  the 
purpose  of  increasing  food  or  wealth,  plus  the 
conceptions  of  sympatheticlnagic^  The  table  implies 
food,  erg^o  there  may  have  beerf  instances  when  it 
actually  produced  it.  Some  such  reasoning  lies 
behind  these  magical  processes  of  our  tales,  though 
the  connection    of   the    objects    with    those    actual 

1  F.L.J.y  iv.  23.  In  an  Esthonian  story  we  have  a  hat  which 
causes  the  owner  to  see  everything,  shoes  of  swiftness,  and  a  magic 
rod — Kirby,  ii.  25.  For  a  Japanese  story  with  hat  and  coat  of  invisi- 
bility, jewels  which  govern  the  tides,  see  p.  235.  The  literary  form 
of  all  these  groups  is  the  famous  mediaeval  chap-book  story  of 
Fortunatus. 


220  INANIMATE  OBJECTS 

ceremonies  is  not  easy  to  trace  step  by  step.  We  see 
it  more  clearly  in  an  Esthonian  tale,  where  the 
magfician  puts  some  drops  of  water  on  the  grass  and 
produces  a  lake,  and  with  a  shell  and  two  fish-bones 
makes  a  boat  and  oars.^  Like  produces  like.  So  the 
bag-  which  produces  rain  when  shaken,  in  the  Kalmuk 
tale,  suggests  the  ceremonies  in  use  for  that  purpose 
among  many  primitive  peoples,  e.£^.,  shaking  water 
from  a  pot,  spirting  it  from  the  mouth,  pouring  it 
over  someone  who  represents  a  deity.  Again,  in  a 
Kashmir  tale  belonging  to  the  third  group,  one  of 
the  magic  articles  is  a  stick  on  which  whatever  is 
written  is  produced.  Here  is  an  example  of  that 
magical  power  of  the  name  already  noted  in  the  first 
chapter. 

The  animals  which  produce  gold,  and  which  enter 
into  such  a  large  range  of  tales,  are  less  easy  to 
explain.  Perhaps,  like  so  many  other  objects,  they 
are  the  mere  gorgeous  products  of  the  story-teller's 
brain  working  from  the  known  (the  magical  effects 
which  he  knew)  to  the  unknown  and  more  mysterious. 
Some  hint  at  an  explanation  is  suggested  by  the 
Cinderella  tales,  in  which  the  dead  mother,  trans- 
formed into  an  animal,  produces  riches  or  food  from 
her  horn.  This  is  also  suggested  in  a  Kafir  version 
of  the  first  group.  An  ill-treated  boy  had  a  wonderful 
ox  which  produced  food  from  its  right  horn  when  he 
struck  it.  The  food  returned  when  the  left  horn  was 
struck.  The  ox  advised  him  to  remove  the  horns, 
but  they  still  continued  to  supply  his  wants  as  before. 
At  the  next  hut  where  he  stayed,  his  host  stole  them, 
substituting  ordinary  horns,  but  in  spite  of  this  he 
could  not  perform  the  trick,  and  the  boy  recovered 
them.  Finally  they  produced  clothes,  a  large  supply 
of  provisions,  and  a  house  where  the  hero  went  to  live 

*  Kirby,  i.  244.  Major  Wingate,  in  his  book  on  the  Soudan,  tells 
how  it  was  believed  that  one  of  the  Mahdi's  rivals  had  a  magic  tent 
which  would  supply  food  for  a  whole  army. 


THE  SHOES  OF  SWlFfNESS  221 

with  the  bride  whom  he  had  won.^  It  should  be 
noted  that,  among  the  Kafirs,  horned  cattle  are  very 
valuable ;  great  care  is  taken  of  them,  and  they  are 
even  taught  to  obey  signals.  In  the  one  case  the 
dead  mother  as  a  cow,  in  the  other  the  already 
valuable  ox,  are  raised  to  a  level  on  which  anything 
magical  may  happen.  But,  more  likely,  all  such 
wonder-working  animals  are  imaginative  extensions 
of  the  friendly  beasts  who  help  the  hero  in  many  tales, 
or  of  the  animals  worshipped  in  actual  life  by  savage 
and  early  man  everywhere.  The  objects  themselves 
recall  the  Greek  myth  of  the  horn  of  Amalthea,  with 
its  never-failing  supply  of  food,  and  are  illustrated  by 
a  Red  Indian  tale  in  which  the  sorcerer  produces 
marvels  with  the  aid  of  a  reindeer  horn  and  a  rod  of 
red  willow.^ 

As  for  the  shoes  of  swiftness,  the  cloak  of  in- 
visibility, and  the  like,  doubtless  the  wish  to  have 
such  objects  was  father  to  the  thought,  and  the  next 
best  thing  to  possessing  them  was  to  tell  stories 
about  them.  Swiftness  and  strength  were  both 
desirable  for  primitive  men,  and  it  was  natural  to 
suppose  that  anyone  who  possessed  these  to  an 
unusual  extent  had  some  magic  source  for  them. 
The  shoes  of  swiftness  were  suggested  by  the  primi- 
tive sandals  which  protected  the  feet  of  the  runner.^ 
The  cap  or  cloak  of  invisibility  may,  not  improbably, 
have  taken  its  origin  from  the  disguises  to  which 
clothes  lend  themselves  so  easily,  coupled  with  the 
desire  of  becoming  invisible,  as  a  protection  from 

^  Theal,  pp.  14,  158. 

-  Petitot,  p.  73.  In  the  Ramayana  a  king  steals  a  hermit's  cow 
which  provides  all  her  master's  wishes.  She  returns  to  him,  and  he 
asks  her  to  produce  armies  which  overthrow  the  king's  hosts — a  truly 
Oriental  version  of  the  tales  of  the  first  group. 

^  Shoes  of  swiftness  are  made  by  Hermodr  from  the  skin  of  the 
soles  of  her  feet,  by  an  Icelandic  giant's  advice.  Powell  and  Mag- 
nusson,  p.  397.  The  carpets  and  other  articles  which  transport  the 
owner  anywhere  at  will  are  adaptations  of  the  same  idea. 


222  INANIMATE  OBJECTS 

enemies.^  At  all  events,  it  is  simpler  and  more  in 
accordance  with  fact,  to  see  in  these,  as  in  the  magic 
rod  or  sword  and  other  objects,  actual  products  of 
primitive  thought  and  custom,  than  to  explain  them 
as  the  detritus  of  ancient  sun  or  storm  myths.  But 
in  discussing  the  subject  of  the  shoes  of  swiftness,  it 
should  be  observed  that  all  through  the  Middle  Ages 
and  indeed  down  to  the  seventeenth  century,  there 
was  a  general  belief,  giving  rise  to  occasional  circum- 
stantial narratives,  in  the  possibility  of  miraculously 
quick  transit  from  one  place  to  another,  hours  taking 
the  place  of  days.  Mysterious  persons  joined  them- 
selves to  the  solitary  traveller,  who  found  himself  at 
his  journey's  end  long  before  he  should  have  done 
so.^  Besides  this  belief,  Celtic,  Scandinavian,  and 
Italian  fairy  and  witch  lore  is  full  of  stories  of  men 
caught  up  by  witches  or  in  a  fairy-eddy  and  trans- 
ported to  a  distant  place  by  night,  finding  themselves 
far  from  home  next  morning.^  With  these,  again, 
must  be  placed  the  current  belief  in  the  witch  journey 
through  the  air  to  the  Sabbat.  That  witches  them- 
selves believed  in  such  aerial  flights  is  undoubted; 
we  may,  however,  refer  them  to  the  results  of 
dreams,  or  (as  is  known  to  have  been  the  case) 
to  the  effect  of  various  potions,  stimulating  an 
imagination  already  filled  with  preconceived  ideas 
and  stories    of  nocturnal    orgies.     The    excitement 

^  A  cloak  or  cap  of  invisibility  also  figures  in  those  stories  in 
which  the  hero  who  wears  it  discovers  why  the  king's  daughters  wear 
out  so  many  shoes  every  night,  viz.,  by  their  furious  dancing  far  off  in  the 
forest — a  reminiscence  of  the  wild  night-orgies  of  the  folk-festivals. 
Jones,  p.  288  (Magyar) ;  Garnett,  ii.  199  (Greek).  Invisibility  is  attri- 
buted to  savage  medicine-men  as  it  was  to  mediaeval  witches,  to 
dwarfs,  giants,  and  fairies. 

2  Calmet,  in  his  Traite  sur  les  Apparitions,  i.  182  seq.^  cites  several 
of  these  stories. 

3  Several  instances  will  be  found  in  Keightley  ;  see  also  Campbell 
{Superstitions  of  the  Scottish  Highlands)^  Sikes  {British  Goblins), 
Leland  {E.R.R.\  and  other  works  on  fairy  lore. 


NEGRO  WITCHES  223 

produced  by  such  orgies,  last  survivals  of  the  old 
pagan  sex-festivals,  would  surround  them  with  a 
tissue  of  ridiculous  fancies.  The  mental  image  was, 
later,  held  to  be  actual  fact.^  Savage  medicine-men 
frequently  claim  the  power  of  flying  through  the  air, 
as  in  Pondo-land,  where  they  say  they  travel  on  the 
thunder-cars,  or  of  conveying  men  from  place  to 
place  with  incredible  swiftness.  Savage  sorcerer  and 
mediaeval  witch  are  in  this,  as  in  so  many  other 
things,  on  the  same  level. 

There  is  little  doubt,  too,  that  the  general  belief 
in  swift  bodily  passage  through  the  air  was 
strengthened  by  the  alleged  phenomena  of  levita- 
tion,  of  which  the  Acta  Sanctorum  are  so  full.     In 

^  In  many  cases,  witches  strictly  confined  to  prison  and  watched, 
said  they  had  been  present  all  the  time  at  a  Sabbat,  and  had  been 
carried  to  and  from  it  through  the  air.  But  it  was  all  a  dream, 
inspired  by  existing  beliefs  or  by  the  action  of  drugs.  These  drugs 
which  witches  are  known  to  have  used,  cause  a  feeling  of  vertigo,  of 
swift  motion  through  the  air,  and  give  rise  to  numerous  other 
hallucinatory  suggestions.  Women  of  the  Negro  witch  company  are 
believed  to  leave  their  bodies  asleep  in  their  huts,  their  spirit  bodies 
meanwhile  taking  part  in  the  orgy  at  a  distance,  after  having  flown 
through  the  air  (Nassau,  p.  123).  The  orgy  consists  of  feasting 
(sometimes  on  the  "  soul "  of  a  victim)  and  dancing.  These  witches 
are  members  of  a  secret  society,  whose  meetings  exactly  resemble 
those  of  mediaeval  witches.  All  must  be  home  by  cockcrow.  For 
the  sex-festivals,  which  continued  in  one  shape  or  another  down  to 
comparatively  late  times,  and  which  originated  much  of  the  belief  in 
the  witch  Sabbat,  see  Karl  Pearson,  Chances  of  Death,  vol.  ii.  They 
were  largely  attended  by  women,  and  doubtless  many  "  witches  "  had 
been  present  at  them.  It  was  easy  to  graft  on  these  orgies  much  of 
the  current  demonology,  more  especially  as  they  were  under  the  ban 
of  the  church  and  denounced  as  devilish.  Similar  orgies  were 
engaged  in  by,  or  what  is  equally  to  the  purpose  as  far  as  results  are 
concerned,  attributed  to  many  mediaeval  heretical  sects,  and  in  those 
we  find  another  suggestion  of  the  Sabbat.  In  another  direction  the 
sex-festival  with  its  dances  on  the  green  sward  by  moonlight 
suggested  the  belief  in  similar  fairy  dances  seen  by  many  a  belated 
traveller,  who,  drawn  into  the  dance,  soon  fell  down  fatigued,  and  was 
ready  to  tell  any  story  of  his  experiences  when  he  awoke  next  morn- 
ing in  the  open  air  and  found  his  companions  of  the  night  gone. 


224  INANIMATE  OBJECTS 

the  ecstasy  of  devotion  saint  after  saint  was  seen  to 
rise  from  the  ground  and  remain  there  suspended ; 
of  St  Christine  it  was  related  that  her  body  had  been 
seen  to  fly  to  the  ceiling  of  the  church  like  a  bird, 
while  she  could  light  on  the  tops  of  trees  or  towers 
with  no  apparent  effort!  Such  levitations,  recalling 
those  of  Daniel  Dunglas  Home,  and  the  alleged 
transportation  of  mediums  like  Mrs  Guppy  from  one 
house  to  another  during  a  trance,  have  been  matters 
of  belief  from  early  times.  Buddhist  saints  and 
neo-Pliatonist  ecstatics,  savage  medicine-men  and 
European  witches,  join  hand  in  hand  with  mediaeval 
saints.  Covenanters,  and  Irvingites,  in  this  business 
of  levitation.^  Obviously,  then,  the  compilers  of  the 
Acta  did  not  altogether  "farce  their  books  with 
many  feigned  miracles,"  as  Fuller  insists.  We  are  in 
presence  of  a  universal  phenomenon,  or  of  a  universal 
delusion,  and  either  is  highly  interesting.  In  either 
case,  whether  there  is  ''something  in  it"  or  no, 
whether  we  must  refer  it  to  the  X  region  or  to  the 
father  of  lies,  levitation  no  doubt  served  to  strengthen 
the  belief  in  aerial  flights. 

^  The  case  of  Home  is  discussed  in  Mr  Podmore's  Modem 
Spiritualism^  where  also  those  of  the  restless  Mrs  Guppy  and  of 
others  will  be  found  (ii.  8i  seq.).  Other  cases  are  referred  to  in  Mr 
Lang's  Making  of  Religion^  p.  361.  Levitation  of  the  saints  is 
discussed  in  Calmet,  i.  174- 181,  and  in  bk.  iv.  chap.  22  of  Gorres' 
Christliche  Mystik,  where  much  curious  information  is  collected 
concerning  the  psychology  of  the  saints. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

FRIENDLY   ANIMALS  I   PUSS   IN   BOOTS 

The  incident  of  friendly  animals  which  assist  a  hero 
in  danger,  or  in  the  performance  of  difficult  tasks,  or 
bring  him  wealth  and  happiness,  occurs  in  many- 
story  cycles  as  well  as  in  a  great  many  detached  tales 
from  various  quarters.  To  most  readers  it  is  already 
sufficiently  familiar  from  Perrault's  famous  version  of 
Puss  in  Boots.  We  shall  therefore  examine  this 
cycle  first  of  all.  The  Magyar  version  has  a  fox  as 
the  deus  ex  machina.  A  poor  miller  had  saved  him 
from  the  huntsmen,  and  the  fox  brought  him  copper 
and  gold,  and  offered  to  get  him  a  wife.  Having 
gone  to  King  Yellowhammer's  court,  the  fox  said 
Prince  Csihan  had  sent  him  to  ask  for  his  daughter's 
hand.  The  king  at  once  granted  the  request.  Next 
the  fox  brought  him  a  lump  of  gold,  saying  the 
prince  had  no  smaller  change.  '*  Dear  me,"  thought 
the  king,  "  what  a  rich  fellow  he  must  be,"  and  begged 
the  fox  to  bring  him  at  once.  On  the  way  the  miller 
is  told  to  strip  and  go  into  the  water,  and  the  fox  tells 
the  king  that  they  have  lost  all  their  possessions. 
Clothes  and  a  retinue  are  at  once  sent  to  the  miller, 
and  the  marriage  duly  takes  place.  On  the  way  home 
the  fox  by  strategy  destroys  the  Vasfogu  Baba,  and 
takes  her  castle  for  the  miller,  who  lives  there  in 
happiness  with  his  bride.  Then  to  test  his  character 
the  fox  shams  illness,  and  is  cast  out  on  the  dunghill, 

225  p 


226      FRIENDLY  ANIMALS:  PUSS  IN  BOOTS 

"You  a  prince,"  muttered  the  fox,  "you  are  nothing 
but  a  miller  "  ;  and,  terrified  out  of  his  judgment,  the 
ung^rateful  miller  restored  his  benefactor  to  his  place 
of  honour  in  the  castle.  This  story  is  also  told  in 
Bohemia,  but  a  dog  takes  the  place  of  the  fox.^ 

Still  worse  treatment  was  meted  out  to  the  fox  in 
an  Italian  version,  closely  parallel  to  this,  for  Don 
Joseph  Pear  threw  dust  at  him,  and  on  his  threaten- 
ing to  reveal  all,  killed  him.  A  Swedish  story  has  a 
heroine  instead  of  a  hero,  and  she  is  helped  by  the 
family  cat  to  riches  and  a  princely  husband.  A  cat 
also  occurs  in  the  Norse  version  called  "  Lord  Peter," 
and  in  both  a  troll's  castle  is  obtained  by  pussy's 
skill.2  jj^  Bengal  a  jackal  is  found  by  a  princess 
eating  betel-leaves,  which  so  surprises  her  that  she 
and  her  mother  beg  him  to  bring  the  king  of  the 
country  to  which  he  belongs.  This  is  done  ;  the  king 
is  a  poor  weaver  on  whom  the  jackal  has  taken  pity. 
The  bathing  incident  does  not  occur,  and  we  have  the 
additional  incident  of  the  weaver's  retinue,  i.e.,  a 
thousand  jackals,  crows,  and  paddy-birds.  Nor  is 
there  any  palace  for  the  poor  princess  to  go  to  ;  she  is 
taken  home  to  the  weaver's  hut,  where  with  Oriental 
submission  she  makes  the  best  of  things,  and  being  a 
person  of  magical  resource  procures  as  much  gold  as 
makes  the  weaver  as  rich  as  the  jackal  had  pretended 
he  was.  Among  the  Swahilis  the  long  story  of 
Sultan  Darai  and  the  gazelle  has  a  closer  parallel  to 
the  European  versions,  but  introduces  many  original 
incidents.     Thus  after  marrying   Darai  the   gazelle 

^  Jones,  p.  I.     Vernaleken,  The  Dog  and  King  Yellowhammer. 

2  Crane,  p.  127.  In  the  Pentamerone^  a  cat,  left  by  a  miserly 
father  to  his  son,  runs  off  when  the  latter  ill-treats  her — Burton,  i.  163. 
Thorpe,  Y.T.S.,  p.  64.  In  two  variants  of  this  tale  (74),  the  cat 
changes  into  a  handsome  prince  ;  in  a  third  the  animal  is  a  dog,  who 
asks  the  girl  to  cut  off  his  head,  and  when  she  does  so  he  becomes  a 
prince  enchanted  till  a  maiden  shed  his  blood  (73).  Cf.  the  next 
group  of  tales,  infra,  p.  229.  Dasent,  p.  369  ;  here  the  cat  is  left  to  the 
youngest  son. 


SULTAN  DARAI  227 

goes  off  to  get  him  a  palace.  He  comes  to  a  town 
empty  of  all  its  inhabitants,  where  he  kills  a  seven- 
headed  snake,  and  then  bringfs  Darai  and  his  wife  to 
occupy  it  with  their  retinue.  In  the  sequel  the  gazelle 
died  of  a  broken  heart  at  Darai's  ingratitude,  and 
Darai  lost  his  princess  and  found  himself  back  in  his 
old  mean  hut — a  poor  weaver  and  nothing  more.  In 
the  Kashmir  version  the  jackal  who  helps  the  poor 
man  does  so  to  save  his  own  life,  because  he  was 
caught  stealing  the  man's  dinner.  Even  nearer  to 
the  European  stories  is  one  told  among  the  Mongols. 
Here  also  the  fox's  life  has  been  spared  by  the  hero, 
and  he  obtains  for  him  the  khan's  daughter  after 
bringing  the  khan  a  leopard,  lion,  and  elephant ;  the 
bathing  incident  and  the  obtaining  of  a  palace  by 
cunning,  follow.  The  story  has  a  curious  form  in 
Uganda.  There,  a  herd-boy  was  advised  by  a 
leopard,  who  was  delighted  with  his  bravery,  to  come 
and  live  with  him.  Soon  after,  by  the  leopard's 
advice,  he  moved  to  a  fertile  district,  where  he  became 
a  great  chief.  One  night  the  leopard  appeared  to  him 
and  told  him  to  collect  all  his  people  into  one  house, 
and  let  none  go  out  during  the  night.  A  tipsy  man 
went  out  at  midnight  and  saw  many  leopards,  one  of 
which  he  killed.  It  was  the  hero's  friend.  Soon  after 
he  returned  from  the  dead,  and  told  the  chief  that 
since  he  had  allowed  him  to  be  killed  he  would  have 
to  go  back  to  his  old  master  and  be  a  slave  once 
more.  That  night  disaster  overcame  the  chief,  and 
like  Sultan  Darai,  he  lost  everything,  and  when 
morning  came,  found  himself  alone  among  the  ruins 
of  his  town.^ 

Compare  with  this  Uganda  tale  a  Basuto  story 
which  has  also  a  link  of  connection  with  the  Cupid 
and    Psyche    group.     A    very  poor  man  found  an 

*  Day,  p.  227,  Steere,  pp.  13-137.  Knowles,  p,  187.  F.L.J. ^ 
iv.  32,  "Folk- Lore  of  Mongolia."  Johnston,  ii.  708.  The  humour  of 
this  Uganda  tale  is  exquisite. 


228      FRIENDLY  ANIMALS:  PUSS  IN  BOOTS 

ostrich  eggf  which  he  carried  home.  Next  day,  on  his 
return  from  hunting-  wild  mice,  he  was  astonished  to 
find  his  hut  tidied  up  and  food  prepared  exactly  as  if 
he  possessed  a  wife.  A  few  days  later  a  woman  came 
out  of  the  egg"  and  ag^reed  to  be  his  wife,  but  told  him 
never  to  call  her  the  daughter  of  an  ostrich  egg-  when 
he  was  drunk.  By  her  magic  powers  she  furnished 
him  with  rich  clothes,  possessions,  and  a  tribe  of 
followers,  and  now  he  disdained  his  former  occupa- 
tions. But  the  foolish  fellow  in  his  cups  called  to  his 
wife — ''Daughter  of  an  ostrich  eg§\''  When  he 
awoke  next  morning  he  was  lying  on  the  grass  ;  rich 
clothes,  possessions,  people,  and  wife  had  disappeared  ; 
he  became  poor  as  ever,  and  tears  and  regrets  were 
all  in  vain.^ 

The  story  from  Uganda  may  or  may  not  have 
been  influenced  by  such  other  versions  as  have  been 
cited  ;  to  my  mind  it  suggests  the  kind  of  inchoate 
story  from  which  the  final  Puss  in  Boots  tale  may 
have  arisen.  These  later  forms,  moreover,  have  a 
moral  like  some  of  the  more  primitive  tales,  but  it  is 
wanting  in  others  ;  while  in  a  few  the  moral  is  the 
value  of  kindness  to  animals  (Magyar,  Mongol),  in 
others  the  danger  of  ingratitude.^  Still  better,  as 
showing  what  the  primitive  forms  of  the  story  may 
have  been,  are  two  tales,  one  Melanesian,  the  other 
Negro  (Fjort). 

The  Melanesian  story  relates  how  Ganviviris,  a 
lazy  fellow,  one  day  caught  a  fish,  which  in  its 
struggles  carried  him  off  to  a  cave,  where  it  turned 
into  a  woman,  called  Ro  Som.  She  announced  her 
intention  of  helping  him.  First  he  was  to  have 
several  bags  made  and  hung  up ;  these,  when  made, 

1  Jacottet,  p.  259.     Cf.  the  Negro  variant,  p.  330. 

2  If  the  tale  arose  first  in  India  as  a  Buddhist  story  inculcating 
kindness  to  animals,  as  the  Benfey  school  allege,  why  does  the 
Indian  variant  lack  that  moral?  C/.  Lang,  Perrault's  Tales,  Intro- 
duction. 


GANVIVIRIS  229 

he  found  filled  with  money.  She  returned  several 
times,  advising  him  how  to  expend  it,  so  that  he 
might  obtain  rank  and  gain  a  wife.  But  she  forbade 
him  to  buy  his  rank  in  a  certain  place ;  if  he  dis- 
obeyed her,  he  would  die.  The  foolish  fellow,  his 
head  turned  by  the  possession  of  so  much  gold,  broke 
the  command.  That  day  a  woman  was  seen  entering 
his  house ;  she  was  followed,  but  the  house  was  found 
to  be  empty  and  all  the  money  gone.  Five  days 
after,  Ganviviris  sickened  and  died.  This  story  con- 
tains in  germ  some  of  the  main  incidents  of  Puss  in 
Boots  tales.  There  is  another  version  of  this  story, 
in  which  Ro  Som  helps  an  orphan,  but  he  disobeys 
and  insults  her,  with  the  result  (as  in  the  African 
stories)  that  when  he  wakes  up  he  finds  his  helper  and 
all  his  wealth  gone.  The  Fjort  story  is  as  follows. 
A  prince  could  only  marry  a  girl  when  he  had  found 
out  her  name.  His  dog  watched  his  sorrow  and 
resolved  to  help  him.  Listening  at  the  girl's  father's 
house  he  heard  it,  ran  home,  but  forgot  it  by  the  way. 
This  happened  a  second  time  ;  next  time  he  carried  it 
to  his  master,  but  on  the  way  to  claim  her  hand,  both 
forgot  it.  The  fourth  time  neither  forgot,  and  the 
prince  obtained  a  wife.  Meanwhile  an  antelope,  the 
unsuccessful  claimant,  waged  war  against  him,  but 
fell  a  victim  to  the  hero's  strength.^ 

Another  group  of  stories  has  in  its  central 
incident — that  of  one  friendly  animal — considerable 
resemblance  to  the  Puss  in  Boots  cycle.  In  these 
stories  the  hero  (or  heroine)  does  something  which  an 
animal  belonging  to  him  advises  him  not  to  do,  with  the 
result  that  he  is  involved  in  a  whole  series  of  troubles 
and  has  to  perform  many  tasks,  winning  in  the  end  a 
handsome  princess.  Throughout  he  has  been  helped 
by  the  animal,  who  in  the  end  bids  him  cut  off  its  head. 
When  he  does  so  there  stands  before  him  a  handsome 
prince,  brother  to  the  princess  whom  he  has  won,  and 

^  Codrington,  pp.  383,  387.     Dennett,  p.  35. 


230       FRIENDLY  ANIMALS:  PUSS  IN  BOOTS 

enchanted  by  a  magician  to  animal  form.  This  is 
Grimm's  story  of  The  Golden  Bird,  with  a  fox  for  the 
helpful  animal ;  its  Danish  parallel  has  a  horse  who 
acts  in  the  same  way ;  ^  we  have  seen  how,  in 
Melanesia,  the  helpful  animal  can  appear  as  a  woman, 
voluntarily,  not  as  a  result  of  enchantment. 

A  myth  in  the  Manabush  cycle  of  the  Menomini 
Indians  has  many  points  of  resemblance  to  European 
tales,  but  is  evidently  quite  orig-inal.  An  unsuccessful 
hunter  was  scorned  by  his  wife  because  his  luck  was 
so  bad.  A  wolf  took  pity  upon  him,  and  helped  him 
to  get  plenty  of  game,  reserving  only  the  liver  for 
himself  The  woman  insisted  on  getting  this  also, 
with  the  result  that  the  wolf  could  get  no  more  game, 
and  now  advised  the  hunter  to  go  and  seek  a  better 
wife.  Before  his  departure  he  gave  him  one  of  his 
claws,  telling  him  to  wear  it  always,  for  so  long  as  he 
wore  it  he  would  be  successful.  He  then  directed  him 
where  he  would  find  a  wife.  Travelling  onwards  he 
encountered  a  family  of  the  Elk  people,  and  married 
their  daughter.  Now  these  people  were  always  being 
beaten  by  the  Moose  people :  it  remained  for  the 
hunter  to  change  the  luck.  In  the  diving  and  racing 
competitions  which  followed,  the  Moose  people  were 
easily  beaten  by  the  hunter,  because  he  was  invisibly 
assisted  by  the  wolf  and  other  animals  whom  he  sent 
to  assist  him.  The  animals  were  manidos- — spirits 
with  animal  forms.  In  revenge,  the  Moose  people 
stole  the  hunter's  wolf-claw  while  he  was  taking  a 
vapour-bath,  and,  his  strength  being  gone,  they  killed 
him  and  cut  him  in  pieces,  although  the  wolf  fought 
hard  for  him.  While  the  Moose-women  were  eating 
these,  a  little  dog  belonging  to  the  hunter's  mother-in- 
law  attacked  them  and  fled  with  his  heel-bone,  and 
having  collected  several  manidos,  gave  the  bone  to 
Kakake,  the  Crow,  who  tossed  it  up  four  times.  The 
fourth  time,  as  it  struck  the  ground,  the  hunter  was 

1  Mulley,  p.  I,  "  Mons  Tro." 


A  ZUNI  CINDERELLA  231 

restored  from  the  dead.  He  now  attacked  the  Moose 
people  and  killed  all  but  two,  whose  mouths  he  rubbed 
with  willows,  and  that  is  why  the  moose  now  eats 
nothing-  else.^ 

As  in  many  myths  of  a  totemistic  people,  the 
Elk  and  Moose  folk  are  as  much  animals  as  they  are 
men.  But  we  have  here  several  formulae  of  the 
Helpful  Animal  tales,  wherever  found — the  friendly 
beast  (in  this  case  a  semi-divine  being-),  the  talisman 
given  by  him,  as  well  as  the  formula  of  restoration  to 
life.  The  story  is  thus  a  good  example  of  how 
various  beliefs  (the  formulae  of  M arc  hen)  are  welded 
together  to  form  a  genuine  myth,  which  might  in 
time  have  itself  become  a  folk-tale. 

We  turn  now  to  a  Zuni  tale  which  links  on  the 
Puss  in  Boots  cycle  to  the  stories  of  the  Cinderella 
cycle,  containing  a  helpful  beast.  A  poor  girl  who 
herded  turkeys,  was  unable  to  go  to  the  sacred  dance. 
The  turkeys,  who  understand  more  than  she  thinks, 
commiserate  her,  give  her  jewels,  and  send  her  to  the 
dance,  bidding  her  not  forget  them  or  treat  them  in 
her  prosperity  as  others  treat  her  now.  She  is  so 
much  the  attraction  of  the  dance  that  she  forgets  the 
turkeys.  Then  suddenly  she  remembers  them,  and 
rushes  off  homewards.  But  the  turkeys  have  gone 
for  ever ;  her  dress  becomes  what  it  was  before,  and 
she  is  left  lamenting.^  The  introduction  of  this  story 
suggests  the  Cinderella  cycle  ;  the  girl's  ingratitude 
connects  it  with  the  Puss  in  Boots  group,  while  the 
incident  of  her  misfortune  is  a  clear  parallel  to  the 
punishment  meted  out  to  the  African  and  Melanesian 
heroes. 

Many  versions  of  the  Cinderella  cycle  have,  in 
place  of  the  orthodox  fairy  godmother,   a  friendly 

^  Bureau  of  Ethnology^  \\th  Annual  Report  (1896),  p.  182.  The 
hunter  in  this  story  is  the  eldest  of  the  three  brothers  in  the  bear  story 
cited  on  p.  175. 

2  Gushing,  p.  54. 


232       FRIENDLY  ANIMALS :  PUSS  IN  BOOTS 

animal,  cow,  bull,  ram,  or  sheep,  and  when  this 
occurs  the  animal  is  almost  invariably  the  girl's 
mother  transformed  to  that  shape  by  sorcery  (usually 
by  a  woman  who  becomes  the  second  wife),  or  by  the 
breaking-  of  some  command  on  her  own  or  her 
daughter's  part.  The  stepmother  starves  the  child, 
but  the  animal  feeds  her  in  some  magical  way.  This 
is  found  out,  and  the  stepmother  orders  the  animal  to 
be  killed.  When  this  is  done,  the  daughter,  following 
the  dead  animal's  instructions,  buries  the  body,  and 
from  the  grave  obtains  food,  fine  clothes,  and  jewels. 
This  is  a  common  European  story,  but  the  same  idea 
of  the  help  given  by  the  dead  is  found  in  Melanesia  ; 
indeed  it  is  perfectly  natural  wherever  it  is  firmly 
held  that  the  dead  are  as  active  as  the  living.  A  poor 
orphan  boy  was  so  maltreated  by  his  rich  uncle's 
wives,  that  he  begged  to  be  taken  to  a  distant  place. 
There,  roasting  birds  one  day,  the  fat  fell  through  the 
earth  on  to  the  head  of  his  dead  father.  He  appeared 
above-ground  as  a  ghost,  and  by  magic  produced  for 
his  son,  food,  gardens,  a  village,  pigs,  and  fowls. 
Thus  the  boy  became  rich,  and  now  the  uncle's  wives, 
in  jealousy,  carried  him  off  while  he  slept,  intending 
to  eat  him.  He  escaped,  but  on  his  return,  all  his 
wealth  was  gone,  and  his  father  had  departed, 
mourning  for  the  son  whom  he  thought  was  untimely 
lost.^  This  is  a  sad  ending  compared  with  that  of 
our  European  Cinderella  tales,  but  savages  seem  fond 
of  a  catastrophe  to  end  their  stories ! 

To  return  to  our  European  tales,  sometimes  a 
magic  wand  or  some  other  article  is  found  in  the 
animal's  body  (Roman,  Chilian) ;  or  again  a  tree 
springs  from  the  grave  and  supplies  what  is  needful 
(Finnish,  etc.).  In  Russian,  Serbian,  Finnish, 
Roman,  Corsican,  French,  and  Gaelic  versions,  and 
in  stories  from  Madagascar,  India,  and  Kashmir,  the 
animal  is  a  cow.     It  is  a  bull  in  Transylvanian  and 

*  Codrington,  p.  389. 


THE  BEAST  MOTHER  233 

Norse  tales,  and  in  Russian  and  Gaelic  stories  it  is  a 
sheep.  ^  Whether  as  woman,  animal,  or  tree,  the 
mother  preserves  her  identity  throughout.  In  these 
instances,  as  in  the  second  Puss  in  Boots  group,  the 
animal  is  a  human  being-  transformed.  But  it  is  not 
improbable  that  the  earlier  form  of  the  Cinderella  tale 
was  different.  In  the  next  chapter  we  shall  see  that 
at  a  certain  stage  of  culture,  marriage  with  a  beast  is 
deemed  neither  irrational  nor  improbable.  So  it  does 
not  in  the  least  surprise  us  to  find  that  a  Scots  story 
has  preserved  intact  this  primitive  conception.  Here 
the  mother  of  Cinderella  is  a  sheep  from  the  first, 
though  in  the  sequel,  after  being  killed,  she  revives 
in  the  form  of  a  beautiful  princess  who  plays  the  part  of 
fairy  godmother.^  The  transformation  incident  is  a 
later  addition.  A  Swedish  Cinderella  story  takes 
quite  a  different  form.  An  ox  helps  the  ill-treated 
stepdaughter,  supplies  her  with  rich  dresses,  and 
takes  her  to  church  on  his  back.  When  she  is 
discovered  she  goes  to  the  ox,  who  bids  her  requite 
him  by  cutting  him  in  three  pieces.  This  is  done, 
and  from  the  carcase  steps  forth  a  handsome  prince 
who  had  been  thus  enchanted,  and  could  never 
have  regained  his  form  without  her  aid.  As  so 
often  happens  in  folk-tales,  this  Cinderella  story 
has  borrowed  an  incident  from  a  story  of  another 
group  —  that  represented  by  Grimm's  Golden 
Bird.^ 

We  now  come  to  stories  in  which  friendly  animals 
(i)  are  born  with  the  hero,  or  (2)  become  his  ser- 
vants, or  (3)  give  him  the  power  of  transformation  to 
their  form,  or  (4)  perform  certain  difficult  tasks  for 
him. 

^  For  references,  see  pp.  108-9.  Sometimes  the  animal,  pike,  bird, 
or  bear  (Swedish,  Thorpe,  Y.T.S.^  p.  112  seq.\  bird  (Itahan,  Crane,  p. 
42),  which  helps  the  heroine,  may  be  the  relic  of  a  divinity  and  not  her 
mother  in  animal  form. 

'^  Miss  Cox,  p.  534.  ^  See  p.  230  supra. 


234      FRIENDLY  x\NIMALS:  PUSS  IN  BOOTS 

( I )  The  stones  of  this  class  belong  mainly  to  that 
group  in  which  the  hero  saves  a  maiden  from  the 
dragon  to  whom  she  is  being  offered  as  a  sacrifice. 
They  open  with  the  incident  of  a  fisherman  catching 
a  large  fish,  which  bids  him  give  part  of  itself  to  his 
wife,  part  to  his  mare,  part  to  his  dog,  and  to  bury 
the  rest  in  the  garden.  His  wife  has  one,  or  in  some 
versions,  three  sons ;  the  mare  has  a  foal ;  the  dog 
has  a  puppy  ;  and  in  the  garden  there  springs  up  a 
tree  which  becomes  the  life-token  of  the  hero.  As  in 
the  Cinderella  story,  we  must  regard  hero  and  animals 
as  the  continuation  of  the  fish  in  another  form.  The 
help  they  render  the  hero  is  not  usually  well-defined  ; 
it  consists  in  attacking  the  dragon ;  causing  the 
recognition  of  the  hero  when  an  impostor  has  taken 
his  place ;  while  in  those  cases  where  there  are  three 
brothers,  the  youngest  son's  animals  assist  him  to 
overcome  the  witch  who  has  turned  the  others  to 
stone,  and  then  obtain  the  water  of  life  which  restores 
them.^  The  fish  may  be  considered  a  friendly  animal 
also,  in  so  far  as  he  gives  the  presumably  childless 
woman  offspring.  Incidents  analogous  to  this  are 
found  in  savage  folk-tales.  A  despised  childless 
woman  in  a  Kafir  tale  is  given  pellets  by  a  bird,  and 
after  swallowing  them  she  has  a  beautiful  daughter. 
Two  pigeons  perform  the  same  office  for  a  Zulu 
woman  who  has  fed  them,  just  as  a  childless  Armenian 
queen  who  had  fed  a  dying  bird  obtained  from  it  the 
gift  of  speech,  and  the  magical  means  of  having  a 
daughter.^ 

^  The  story  is  found  in  Denmark  (Mulley,  p.  37),  Brittany 
(Sebillot,  i.  124),  Lorraine  (Cosquin,  i.  60),  Gascony  (Blade,  C.  Agenais, 
p.  9),  Greece  (Legrand,  p.  161),  Sicily  (Gonzenbach,  i.  269),  Nor- 
mandy (Carnoy,  p.  135),  Italy  (De  Nino,  Usi  Abruzzesi^  iii.  321), 
Portugal  (Coelho,  p.  120),  Serbia  (Leskien,  No.  10),  Russia  (Ralston, 
p.  57). 

2  Theal,  p.  54.  Callaway,  p.  66.  Von  Wlislocki,  p.  72.  Cf. 
another  African  story,  where  the  dogs,  however,  do  nothing,  but  they 
and  the  hero  are  born  in  the  same  way.     Macdonald,  ii.  341. 


LITTLE  PEACHLING  235 

(2)  The  help  gfiven  by  animals  is  more  definite  in 
this  and  the  succeeding-  groups.  Some  tales  belong 
to  the  Dragon-slaying-  cycle  just  referred  to,  but  the 
animals  are  obtained  in  another  way.  This  may  be 
illustrated  from  a  Magyar  story.  Two  brothers 
overcame  a  wolf,  a  bear,  and  a  lioness,  who  gave 
them  their  whelps  as  servants.  The  eldest  rescued  a 
princess  given  up  to  a  dragon,  but  was  afterwards 
slain  by  the  impostor  Red  Knight.  His  animals  dis- 
cussed how  they  might  heal  him.  The  lion  rushed 
off  to  get  a  rope ;  with  it  the  bear  tied  the  hero's 
body  together ;  and  the  wolf,  having  obtained  a  life- 
restoring  plant,  rubbed  his  body  with  it  till  he  revived. 
Each  animal  is  then  sent  for  food  to  the  palace  where 
Red  Knight  is  being  married  to  the  princess,  and,  as 
they  enter,  the  cushions  on  which  he  is  sitting-  drop 
from  under  him.  Finally,  the  hero  enters,  and  is 
recognised,  to  the  utter  discomfiture  of  the  false  bride- 
grroom.^  A  bear,  a  wolf,  and  a  dog-  restore  the  hero 
of  a  similar  Lapp  tale  to  life ;  Hans,  the  knife- 
grinder's  son  is  helped  and  restored  by  the  fox,  bear, 
and  wolf  of  a  Tyrolese  story ;  while,  as  in  the  Talk- 
ing- Fish  cycle,  a  Russian  story  recounts  how  the 
animal  servants  of  one  brother  fight  the  dragon  and 
restore  the  hero,  and  when  he  and  they  are  later 
petrified  by  a  witch,  the  other  brother  and  his  animals 
destroy  the  witch  and  bring-  them  back  to  life.^ 

Stories  from  a  lower  level  of  culture  may  be 
compared  with  these,  as  presenting  the  same  idea 
outside  the  limits  of  a  regular  story  cycle.  Little 
Peachling,  a  Japanese  hero,  set  out  for  the  island  of 
the  ogres  to  obtain  their  treasures.  He  took  with 
him  a  number  of  millet  dumplings.  On  the  way  he 
was  successively  asked  by  an  ape,  a  pheasant,  and  a 
dog"  for  a  share  of  his  food ;  he  did  not  refuse,  and 

1  Jones,  p.  III. 

^  Friis,  p.  170.     Zingerle,  p.  260.     Leskien,  p.  544.     Cf.  Grimm's 
story  of  "Water  Peter  and  Water  Paul." 


236       FRIENDLY  ANIMALS:  PUSS  IN  BOOTS 

was  rewarded  by  the  animals  becoming  his  servants, 

helping  him  to  fight  the  ogres  and  to  obtain  their 

treasures.-^    Or  take  this  story  from  Polynesia.     The 

hero,  Rata,  saved  the  life  of  a  heron  attacked  by  a 

serpent.     Rata,  who  wished  to  build  a  canoe,  but  had 

been  unable  to  do  so  while  the  heron's  cries  were 

disregarded,   was  now  assisted  by  the  bird,   aided 

by  many  others.    They  made  the  canoe,  and  brought 

it  to  his  dwelling,  singing,  ''The  entire  family  of  birds 

of  Kupolu  honour  thee  above  all  mortals."^    Again, 

in  a   Swahili   tale,   Mohammed  the   Languid  saved 

the  life  of  a  white  snake,  which  told  him  his  courtesy 

would  not  be  lost.     Poor  Mohammed's  wife  had  been 

stolen  by  a  jinn  ;  the  snake  with  three  others  brought 

him  a  huge  man,  who  was  to  carry  him  to  the  city  of 

the  jinn.     Through  breaking  a  tabu  Mohammed  fell 

into  the  sea.     Thence  he  was  rescued  by  an  old  man, 

who  said  he  was  the  snake's  brother,  while  another 

brother  gave  him  a  magic  sword,  with  which  he  slew 

the  jinn  and  recovered  his  wife.^    The  wretched  blind 

and  diseased  horse  of  a  Pawnee  story  is  own  brother 

to  the  magic  horses  of  European  folk-tales.     Kindly 

treated  by  a  youth,  it  bade  him  plaster  it  over  with 

mud.     It  became  a  beautiful  steed,  swift  as  the  wind, 

and  by  its  means  the  youth  captured  a  buffalo,  whose 

skin  was  reputed  "great  medicine,"  and  obtained  as 

reward  the  hand  of  the  chiefs  daughter.     Through 

the  hero's  neglect  of  the  horse's  advice,  it  was  hacked 

to  pieces  by  his  enemies,  but  came  to  life  again  and 

brought  him  ten  other  beautiful  steeds  as  a  gift.* 

Stories  such  as  these  might  be  multiplied  indefinitely  ; 

they  all  contain  the  same  kind  of  incidents ;   and 

usually  the  animal  rewards  the  hero  for  his  kindness 

to    it  —  an    idea  which;  suggests  that  kindness  to 

1  Mitford,  i.  267  ;  Griffis,  p.  37. 

2  Gill,  p.  142.     For  a  Maori  version,"  see  Clarke,  p.  90 ;  and  a 
Samoan  variant,  in  Turner,  p.  215. 

3  Steere,  p.  179.  ^  Grinnell,  p.  87. 


JENIK  237 

animals  is  not  the  sole  possession  of  civilised  man, 
and  that  such  tales  did  not  arise  through  Buddhist 
influence.  Pawnees  and  Polynesians  never  heard  of 
Gautama ! 

Helpful  animal  servants  also  occur  in  several 
tales  of  the  Aladdin  cycle,  as  may  be  seen  from  a 
Bohemian  version.  Jenik,  the  despised  youngest 
son,  saved  a  serpent,  dogf,  and  cat  from  the  brutality 
of  a  mob,  and  in  reward  the  first  bade  him  ask  a 
magic  watch  from  the  king  of  the  serpents.  By 
rubbing  it,  he  obtained  a  palace  and  won  a  king's 
daughter's  hand.  She  did  not  love  Jenik,  and  having 
obtained  the  secret  of  the  watch,  caused  herself  and 
her  palace  to  be  transported  far  away.  Jenik  dis- 
covered her  whereabouts  from  two  crows,  and  by 
help  of  his  dog  and  cat  he  arrived  at  his  palace.  The 
cat  stole  the  watch  and  the  dog  swam  with  her  across 
the  sea,  but,  on  the  way,  asked  her  if  she  had  got  the 
watch.  ''  Yes,"  she  replied,  and  the  watch  fell  from 
her  mouth  into  the  sea.  The  cat  forced  a  fish  to 
bring  it,  and  Jenik,  by  rubbing  it,  caused  palace  and 
princess  to  disappear,  and  continued  to  live  happily 
with  his  animal  friends.^ 

In  other  versions  it  is  some  other  man  who 
obtains  the  talisman  and  removes  palace  and  wife. 
Here,  usually,  the  hero  buys  his  animals,  cat  and 
dog,  and  occasionally  a  rat  also ;  the  same  methods 
of  recovery  are  used,  the  talisman  falls  into  the  sea 
but  is  brought  back  by  a  fish  (which  had  been  put 
back  into  the  sea  by  the  hero  when  his  father  caught 
it).  The  hero  then  takes  possession  of  his  palace  and 
his  lost  wife,  and  kills  the  thief  There  are  Greek, 
Italian,  Albanian,  Breton,  and  Russian  examples 
of  this  form  of  the  tale,  as  well  as  Arab  and  Hindu. ^ 

*  Leger,  No.  15.  In  a  Cypriote  parallel  the  hero  recovers  his  wife 
— Dozon,  p.  219. 

-  Hahn,  No.  9.  Dozon,  p.  63.  Luzel,  p.  151.  Gubernatis,  Z.M.^ 
ii.  56.     Scott,  Arab.  Nights^  vi.  ;  Ind.  Ant.  1881,  p.  347. 


238      FRIENDLY  ANIMALS:  PUSS  IN  BOOTS 

A  Mongol  story  belongs  to  the  same  general  type. 
A  Brahman  saved  a  mouse,  monkey,  and  bear  from 
death,  losing  his  merchandise  by  doing  so.  Set 
adrift  in  a  coffer,  he  was  saved  by  these  animals,  and 
all  lived  together.  The  ape  found  a  jewel,  by  which 
the  Brahman  obtained  all  he  could  wish  for ;  but  it 
was  stolen  by  a  merchant,  and  he  was  left  as  poor  as 
ever.  The  mouse  crept  into  the  merchant's  house 
and  stole  the  talisman.  Then  it  was  lost  again  in 
the  usual  way,  but  recovered  by  the  mouse  who  sum- 
moned the  inhabitants  of  the  water  and  bade  them 
find  it.  So  it  was  restored  to  the  Brahman,  who  then 
obtained  a  palace,  a  city,  a  daughter  of  the  devas  as 
a  wife,  while  a  hundred  children  were  born  to  him !  ^ 
There  is  also  an  Aino  parallel,  in  which  a  rich  man's 
charm  is  stolen  by  an  ogre.  His  puppy  and  fox-cub, 
fearing  lest  he  and  they  starve,  induce  a  rat  to  go  with 
them  in  search  of  it.  The  rat  scoops  a  passage  into 
the  giant's  house,  and  all  enter.  While  he  is  engaged 
nibbling  a  hole  in  a  box  in  which  the  charm  is  kept, 
the  puppy  and  cub  take  the  form  of  children  and 
dance  before  the  ogre.  Then  they  and  the  rat  escape 
and  bring  the  charm  to  the  true  owner,  whom  they, 
in  a  dream,  make  witness  of  all  that  has  happened. 
Hence  the  Ainos  think  well  of  rats.^ 

An  English  gipsy  variant  makes  Jack's  valet 
steal  his  magic  snuff-box,  and  so  remove  his  palace. 
His  father-in-law  bids  him  recover  it  in  a  year,  or  he 
will  never  give  him  his  wife  again.  Here,  as  in  an 
Italian  parallel,  Jack  obtains  help  from  the  king  of 
frogs,  the  king  of  eagles,  and  the  king  of  mice,  who 
each  give  him  one  of  their  subjects,  by  whose  aid  he 
recovers  his  snuff-box.^ 

1  Busk,  p.  134.  '-^  Chamberlain,  p.  16. 

3  Groome,  In  Gypsy  Tents^  p.  201.  Crane,  p.  152.  In  this 
Italian  version  the  king  of  fishes  and  the  king  of  birds  assist  the  hero. 
I  have  already  discussed  the  talisman  of  this  cycle.  See  p.  202,  where 
a  Korean  variant  is  also  referred  to. 


THK  HEROES  THxVNSFORMATIONS  239 

In  discussing  the  Youngest  Son  story-cycles  we 
shall  find  how  the  hero,  having  rescued  an  eagle's 
young  ones  from  a  dragon,  is  carried  by  the  eagle 
out  of  the  underworld,  where  he  has  been  abandoned. 
The  eagle  has  to  be  fed  by  the  hero  as  it  flies,  and 
in  certain  cases,  the  supply  of  food  failing,  he  has  to 
cut  a  piece  of  flesh  from  his  own  thigh.  In  this 
connection  the  incident  has  a  wide  distribution,  and 
occurs  in  Gaelic,  Russian,  Bosnian,  Tsigane,  Tran- 
sylvanian,  Greek,  Albanian,  French,  Indian,  Tartar, 
and  Avar  tales. 

(3)  The  incident  of  the  power  of  transformation 
given  to  the  hero  by  grateful  animals  is  usually  intro- 
duced by  the  same  formula — a  quarrel  between  the 
animals,  decided  by  the  hero.  It  mainly  occurs  in 
stories  of  the  Separable  Soul  cycle.^  Meanwhile  I 
cite  a  Lorraine  version  as  typical.  A  shoemaker  met 
a  lion,  an  eagle,  and  an  ant,  who  asked  him  to  decide 
on  their  respective  shares  of  a  dead  ass.  In  gratitude 
the  eagle  gave  him  a  feather,  the  lion  a  hair,  the  ant 
one  of  its  feet,  with  the  words,  ''  When  you  hold  this 
in  your  hand,  you  will  be  able  to  take  my  form." 
The  hero  rescued  a  princess  stolen  by  a  magician. 
As  an  eagle  he  flew  to  the  castle ;  as  an  ant  he 
entered ;  and  as  a  lion  he  fought  the  lion,  in  whose 
head  the  magician  kept  his  soul.  After  rescuing  the 
lady  he  was  thrown  into  the  sea  by  her  lover,  who 
swore  he  himself  had  rescued  her.  There  he  was 
swallowed  by  a  whale.  A  beggar  bargained  with 
the  whale  for  a  sight  of  the  hero.  More  and  more 
of  his  body  emerged  from' its  mouth  ;  then,  in  a  flash, 
he  assumed  his  eagle  form  and  flew  away.^ 

Where  this  second  incident  occurs  the  story  usually 
belongs  to  the  Promised  Child  cycle,  but  also  con- 
tains the  dramatic  Separable  Soul  incident.  When 
the  time  comes  for  the  redemption  of  the  promise,  the 

'  Cf.  p.  134  supra.  -  Cosquin,  i.  166. 


240      FRIENDLY  ANIMALS:  PUSS  IN  BOOTS 

hero  runs  away  and  meets  the  animals,  who  reward 
him  with  the  gift  of  transformation.  Then  follow 
the  rescue  of  the  princess,  the  capture  of  the  hero  by 
the  creature  to  whom  he  was  originally  promised,  and 
his  escape,  as  in  the  Lorraine  story.  This  version  of 
the  tale  is  found  in  Greece,  in  Scotland,  in  Germany, 
and,  modified,  in  Italy.^  Sometimes,  however,  as  in 
Campbell's  first  story  of  the  Sea-Maiden,  the  animals 
promise  their  presence  and  help  when  the  hero  wishes 
them  to  come ;  or,  as  in  a  Tuscan  story,  they  each 
give  him  seven  times  their  own  strength.^ 

Frequently,  however,  the  story  confines  itself  to 
the  first  incident — the  necessary  transformations  to 
rescue  the  princess  and  destroy  the  giant.  Of  this 
there  are  Sicilian,  Breton,  Flemish,  German,  Tyro- 
lese,  Danish,  Norse,  and  Basque  examples.  But  in 
all  cases  the  animals  are  exactly  those  needed  to 
overcome  the  successive  creatures  in  which  the 
giant's  soul  is  concealed.^ 

(4)  Finally,  in  stories  relating  how  impossible 
tasks  were  performed  by  animals,  the  capabilities  or 
numbers  of  these  animals  exactly  suit  the  circum- 
stances. As  a  typical  example  we  take  that  story 
cycle  in  which  an  impostor  passes  himself  off  to  a 
king  as  his  son,  nephew,  godson,  etc.,  whom  he  has 
never  seen,  after  forcing  the  youth  to  keep  silence  on 
the  subject  till  he  has  died  and  been  resuscitated. 
Through  the  impostor's  wiles  he  is  given  several 
tasks  to  perform,  among  which  the  chief  is  to  bring  a 
beautiful  princess,  or  to  recover  the  king's  wife  (Pisan) 

^  Hahn,  No.  5.  Campbell,  i.  96  (variant  of  the  original).  Koehler, 
ii.  117.  Straparola,  No.  9;  the  hero  who  captures  Fortunio  has  no 
pre-natal  right  to  him,  but  his  adoptive  mother  has  pronounced  a 
curse  on  him  that  an  ogress  should  carry  him  off. 

2  Campbell,  i.  72.     Gubernatis,  Novelline^  No.  23. 

3  Pitre,  ii.  215.  Sebillot,  i.  No.  9.  Wolf,  D.M.^  pp.  20,  82. 
Zingerle,  ii.  No.  i.  Grundtvig,  ii.  194.  Asbjoernsen,  p.  223. 
Webster,   p.    80. 


f 


ADOLPHE  241 

or  daughter  (Lorraine).  In  a  Greek  version  he  fell  in 
with  a  number  of  ants  trying-  to  cross  a  brook,  bees 
whose  honey  is  being  devoured  by  a  bear,  and  young 
crows  attacked  by  a  serpent.  All  of  these,  on  the 
advice  of  his  horse,  he  helps,  and  in  return  they  assist 
him  in  the  tasks  set  him  by  the  lady  before  she  will 
accompany  him.  The  ants  sort  out  a  heap  of  millet 
and  other  seeds  ;  the  bees  point  out  the  maiden  in  the 
midst  of  a  number  of  girls  exactly  like  her ;  the  crows 
procure  for  him  the  Water  of  Life.^  In  the  Pisan 
version  the  hero  shelters  a  fish,  a  nightingale,  and  a 
butterfly  ;  the  fish  procures  the  lady's  ring  thrown  by 
her  into  the  sea,  the  nightingale  brings  the  Water  of 
Life,  and  the  butterfly  alights  on  her  forehead  and 
distinguishes  her  from  the  other  women.  The 
incident  in  the  Lorraine  story  takes  a  different  turn. 
Adolphe  has  to  pass  through  the  kingdoms  of  the 
fish,  the  ants,  the  rats,  the  crows,  and  the  giants,  and 
the  king  of  each  demands  toll.  In  return  each 
respectively  gives  him  a  bone,  a  foot,  a  hair,  a  feather, 
and  a  hair  of  his  beard,  that  he  may  summon  them 
with  these  when  required.  The  maiden's  captor 
bade  him  remove  a  mountain  and  put  a  garden  in  its 
place.  Giants  removed  the  mountain  ;  ants  and  rats 
prepared  the  soil ;  and  crows  brought  plants  to  place 
in  it.  They  also  fetched  the  Water  of  Life,  while  the 
fishes  recovered  the  ring.  Next  Adolphe  had  to 
bring  the  palace  of  the  captor  and  set  it  beside  that 
of  the  king.  Ants  and  rats  loosened  its  foundations  ; 
four  giants  carried  it  to  the  ship ;  and  the  fishes,  like 
the  Nereids  with  the  Argo  between  Scylla  and 
Chary bdis,  bore  it  over  the  waves.  ^ 

A  Danish  story  omits  the  impostor  incident,  but 
the  hero,  Mons.  Tro,  has  to  fetch  for  a  king  the 
loveliest  princess  in  the  world.  On  the  way,  by  the 
advice  of  his  horse  and  a  poodle,  he  feeds  the  fishes, 

^  Hahn,  No.  37.     For  a  variant,  see  Garnett,  ii.  28. 

-  Comparetti,  No.  5.    Cosquin,  i.  32.     For  other  parallels,  see  p.  56. 

Q 


242       FRIENDLY  ANIMALS :  PUSS  IN  BOOTS 

the  wolves,  and  the  bears,  and  many  giants.  The 
fishes  recover  the  castle  keys  thrown  by  the  princess 
into  the  sea,  carry  the  castle  itself  when  the  giants 
have  taken  it  from  its  foundations ;  the  bears  and 
wolves,  however,  do  nothing,  and  Mons  Tro  gets  the 
Water  of  Life  himself^  The  hero  of  a  Slavonic  tale 
is  set  the  tasks  of  separating  poppy-seeds  from  ashes, 
and  of  bringing  a  pearl  from  the  depths  of  the  ocean. 
Ants  whom  he  has  fed  perform  the  first  task,  and  a 
fish  whom  he  has  saved  the  second.  In  a  Bohemian 
variant  the  hero  saves  the  ants  from  burning,  feeds 
the  ravens,  and  puts  a  fish  back  into  the  water.  All 
promise  to  help  him.  The  ants  find  Princess  Golden 
Hair's  pearls  in  the  meadow;  the  fish  recovers  her 
ring  from  the  sea  ;  and  the  ravens  bring  the  Water  of 
Life.  With  it  he  resuscitates  a  dead  fly,  which,  in 
gratitude,  helped  him  to  choose  out  Golden  Hair 
from  twelve  girls  all  alike. ^  A  Magyar  tale  resembles 
these  as  well  as  the  stories  of  the  Impostor  cycle.  The 
hero  is  the  youngest  of  three  brothers.  The  others, 
jealous  of  the  youth,  cause  the  king  to  set  him  tasks 
— to  gather  all  the  corn  in  a  night ;  to  build  a  bridge 
of  wax ;  and  to  bring  twelve  immense  wolves  into  the 
courtyard.  But  he  has  already  helped  the  king  of  the 
mice,  a  bee,  and  a  dying  wolf  The  mice  collected  the 
grain  ;  the  bees  made  the  bridge  ;  and  the  wolf  brought 
not  only  twelve  of  his  kind,  but  all  the  wolves  in  the 
country,  who  tore  king,  courtiers,  and  jealous  brothers 
to  pieces.^ 

The  same  incidents  occur  in  Eastern  tales.  The 
Prince  of  Sind  fed  locusts  and  a  herd  of  wild  animals. 
These  assist  him  in  the  tasks  which  he  must  perform 
before  wedding  a  certain  princess.  The  locusts 
separate  a  huge  heap  of  grain  ;  the  animals  drink  up 
a  reservoir  which  he  has  to  drain  ;  and  genii  help  him 
in  constructing  a  palace  in  return  for  kindness  done 

1  Mulley,  p.  I.  2  Leger,  No.  25.     Naake,  p.  97, 

^  Jones,  p.  1 52. 


MALAGASY  AND  JAPANESE  VERSIONS      243 

to  them.  A  Tamil  story  resembles  this.  Ants  and 
frog"  help  the  hero  to  separate  seeds  from  dust  and  to 
recover  a  ring-.  These  tasks  have  been  set  him  by 
Indra  to  perform  ere  he  will  find  his  lost  wives.  A 
Malagasy  tale  presents  a  still  closer  likeness.  Seven 
brothers  are  suitors  for  a  girl's  hand ;  only  the 
youngest  feeds  certain  animals.  The  six  elder 
brothers  fail  in  accomplishing  the  tasks  set  by  the 
girl's  father  ;  the  youngest  succeeds  by  the  aid  of  the 
grateful  animals.  The  wild  hog  and  his  fellows  dig 
up  a  grain-field ;  the  crows  collect  the  rice ;  wasps 
drive  in  the  wild  ox  ;  and  the  crocodiles  obtain  certain 
eggs  from  the  lake.  In  a  variant,  Andrianoro  has  to 
pick  out  the  mother  from  her  daughters,  whom  she 
exactly  resembles  ;  this  he  does  by  the  aid  of  a 
friendly  fly.^ 

Obviously  these  tales  have  had,  so  far  as  the 
friendly  animals  are  concerned,  a  common  origin 
though  they  have  spread  so  far.  A  similar  incident 
is  embedded  in  the  Ko-ji-ki,  the  sacred  book  of  Japan. 
The  Deity  Great  Name  Possessor  went  to  Hades  to 
get  counsel  of  its  lord.  He  fell  in  love  with  his 
daughter,  who  now  became  his  protector  against  her 
father's  wiles.  When  he  sent  him  to  fetch  an  arrow 
from  the  moor,  the  treacherous  lord  of  Hades  set  the 
moor  on  fire.  A  mouse  instructed  the  hero  where  to 
hide  from  the  flames,  and  afterwards  brought  him 
the  hidden  arrow.  Still  closer  is  a  Zuni  story,  in 
which  a  girl  will  accept  no  lover  who  does  not  bring 
her  many  scalps.  An  outcast  youth  who  lives  with 
the  dogs,  who  are  his  friends,  resolves  to  try,  and  with 
their  aid  obtains  the  scalps,  and  weds  the  maiden. 

1  Clouston,  i.  237.  Cf.  a  Hindu  parallel  in  Stokes,  No.  22. 
Dravidian  Nights  Enter tain7nents^  p.  109.  F.L.J.^  ii.  47  ;  i.  206.  It 
is  remarkable  how  often  ants  assist  the  heroes  of  folk-tales  in  separat- 
ing out  a  heap  of  different  grains.  The  incident  occurs  in  the 
classical  tale  of  Cupid  and  Psyche.  Cosquin,  ii.  243,  as  usual, 
attributes  the  origin  of  the  idea  to  Buddhist  sources. 


244      FRIENDLY  ANIMALS:  PUSS  IN  BOOTS 

When  the  rejected  suitors  plot  his  destruction  the 
dogs  carry  him  the  tidingfs,  and  warn  him  against 
them.^  • 

Without  stopping  to  consider  other  definite  story 
cycles  in  which  friendly  animals  figure,  I  shall  refer  to 
a  variety  of  such  incidents  in  widely  scattered  folk- 
tales, mostly  from  savage  or  barbarian  sources. 
Among  the  Chinese  the  incident  is  a  common  one. 
A  man  took  care  of  a  wounded  bird,  which,  when 
the  man  turned  ill,  brought  him  herbs  which  saved 
his  life;  another  bird  brought  its  rescuer  four 
bracelets ;  a  serpent  rewarded  the  emperor  Ho-Ti 
with  a  fine  carbuncle  for  healing  it.  Most  curious  of 
all  is  a  story  in  which  a  tiger  killed  a  woman's  son. 
The  magistrate  agreed  to  pardon  it,  provided  he 
would  be  as  a  son  to  the  woman.  The  woman  was 
angry,  but  subsequently  came  to  care  for  the  tiger 
when  he  brought  her  food  every  morning,  and  many 
things  of  price.^  A  curious  parallel  is  found  among 
the  Eskimo.  A  woman  and  her  child,  when  starving, 
caught  a  partridge.  She  threw  this  to  an  enormous 
bear  which  threatened  their  lives.  Every  day  a 
supply  of  newly-killed  seals  was  laid  at  her  door  by 
the  grateful  bear.  In  another  Eskimo  story  wild 
geese  take  pity  on  a  youth  whom  his  mother  has 
blinded,  and  restore  his  sight.^ 

Among  all  African  races  such  stories  are  common. 
The  Hottentots  say  that  three  brothers  visited  their 
sister,  who  did  not  know  them,  and  resolved  to  kill 
them.  But  they  had  a  guinea-fowl  which  watched 
over  them  and  warned  them  of  her  coming.  A  second 
time  the  bird  did  so  but  could  not  waken  the  brothers, 
and  they  were  killed.     It  rushed  to  their  parents  ; 

'  Chamberlain,  p.  71.  The  deity  and  the  girl  escape  together 
after  making  the  lord  of  Hades  a  prisoner.  He  afterwards  pursues, 
and  ends,  as  in  many  folk-tale  incidents  of  this  kind,  in  giving 
them  advice.     Gushing,  p.  185. 

2  Dennis,  p.  136.     Giles,  i.  219.  ^  Rink,  pp.  loi,  462. 


SAVAGE  INSTANCES  245 

the  father  chang-ed  himself  into  a  strong-  wind,  the 
bird  into  a  thunderstorm,  and  then  destroyed  the 
woman  and  all  her  people.  Among  the  Fjort  it  is 
told  how  the  g-oddess  Nzambi's  people  had  no  drum 
wherewith  to  dance.  The  wagtail  made  one,  but 
kept  it  to  herself  The  antelope  and  the  ox  were 
sent  to  get  the  drum,  but  were  killed ;  the  people 
were  in  despair.  Then  the  ant  volunteered  to  go ; 
he  could  never  be  seen,  he  was  so  small!  So  he 
entered  the  wagtail's  house,  and  carried  off  the  drum 
unperceived.^  The  incident  of  animal  help  occurs  in 
many  Red  Indian  stories  also.  Some  have  already 
been  referred  to ;  others  contain  the  idea  that  all  the 
animals  live  underground.  They  have  magical 
knowledge,  and  are  under  a  chief  We  have  already 
seen  how  European  tales  speak  of  the  king  of  the 
mice,  the  crows,  etc.  In  a  Pawnee  tale,  a  boy, 
poisoned  by  a  shaman,  was  led  by  an  elk  and  a  bird 
to  this  animal  land  where  there  are  no  people.  There 
he  was  cured,  and  taught  their  magic  lore.  They 
told  him  he  was  their  kinsman,  because  he  and  they 
were  made  by  Ti-ra-wa ;  they  would  always  help 
him,  but  in  difficult  cases  he  must  appeal  to  this 
divinity.  White  Flower,  says  a  Hareskin  story, 
was  stolen,  but  killed  her  ravisher  and  escaped.  On 
returning  home  she  had  to  cross  a  swollen  river, 
when  a  wolf  appeared  and  said,  "  Seat  yourself  on  my 
back."  She  had  no  sooner  done  so  than  the  wolf 
leaped  into  the  river  and  carried  her  safely  to  the 
other  side.  In  an  Eskimo  tale  a  woman  and  her 
daughter,  abandoned  by  the  villagers,  are  fed  by  a 
shark,  who  takes  up  his  abode  with  them,  and  finally 
carries  them  on  his  back  to  an  island,  when  some 
dangerous  dwarfs  molest  them.^  Finally,  a  story 
from  British  Guiana  relates  that  once  the  birds 
combined  with  men  to  slay  a  huge  water-serpent. 

^  Bleek,  p.  65.     Dennett,  p.  124. 

'^  Grinnell,  p.  98.     Petitot,  p.  248.    Rink,  p.  270. 


246      FRIENDLY  ANIMALS :  PUSS  IN  BOOTS 

The  warriors  were  afraid,  and  the  serpent  was  over- 
come by  a  cormorant,  which  was  rewarded  with  the 
skin  of  the  reptile.^ 

How  are  all  these  incidents  of  animals  helping 
men,  to  be  explained?  Some,  like  Benfey,  Cosquin, 
etc.,  trace  them  all  to  Buddhist  sources,  since  tender- 
ness to  animals  is  part  of  the  Buddhist  ethical  code ; 
and  an  animal,  having"  been  a  man  in  some  previous 
existence,  naturally  may  show  human  traits  now  and 
then.  Some  story  cycles,  like  that  of  the  Dogf 
Gellert,  or  Androcles,  or  that  other  in  which  a  man 
rescued  with  certain  animals,  turns  against  his  rescuer 
whom  the  animals  assist,^  may  certainly  be  traced, 
step  by  step,  to  Indian  Buddhist  sources.^  But  this 
is  too  narrow  a  basis  on  which  to  rest  the  numerous 
cycles   in  which    the    idea    occurs,   while    it    leaves 

^  Brett,  p.  173.  Other  definite  story  cycles  contain  the  incident 
of  Friendly  Animals,  (i)  Animal  servants  restore  the  hero  to  life 
when  he  has  been  cut  to  pieces  by  the  ogre,  robber,  etc.,  who  has 
overcome  him  by  connivance  of  his  sister  {cf.  p.  58).  In  a  Roumanian 
tale  a  fox  and  wolf  cub  {R.F.T.^  p.  81),  and  in  a  Slavonic  tale,  animals 
which  are  enchanted  men  restore  the  hero.  (2)  Sometimes,  in 
stories  of  the  Promised  Child  cycle,  the  hero  escapes  from  his  captor 
by  the  intervention  of  a  friendly  animal,  which  he  finds  shut  up  in 
a  Forbidden  Chamber  (see  chap,  xv.,  and  some  curious  Russian 
variants  in  Ralston,  p.  134).  (3)  Stories  of  the  Ungrateful  Serpent 
type,  in  which  the  reptile,  saved  by  a  man,  turns  upon  him,  but  he  is 
finally  rescued  by  a  friendly  fox  (Albanian  and  Norse  versions  in 
Clouston,  i.  263;  Crane,  p.  150,  cites  Italian  versions;  Bleek,  p.  13, 
gives  a  Hottentot  parallel,  with  a  hyena  as  deus  ex  machinaj  while  in 
a  Hindu  tale  the  serpent  itself  relents  and  rewards  the  man — Clouston, 
E.R.^  p.  231).  (4)  The  large  series  of  stories  in  which  a  kindly 
disposed  person  is  richly  rewarded  by  an  animal,  while  the  jealous 
brother,  sister,  neighbour,  etc.,  treats  the  animal  with  contumely,  and 
is  punished  by  it.  (Swedish  variants  in  Thorpe,  Y.T.S.^  p.  35  ;  there 
are  also  German,  Bohemian,  Magyar,  and  Danish  stories  of  this  type. 
Chamberlain,  p.  23,  gives  an  Aino  story,  and  Theal,  p.  47,  a  Kafir 
variant.) 

2  Baring-Gould,  p.  134.  Panchatantra^  i.  sect.  71  ;  ii.  sect.  128. 
Katha  Sarit  Sagara^  x.  65.     Steere,  p.  427. 

•^  We  may  dismiss  the  theory  of  mythologists  like  Gubernatis,  who 
see  in  all  animal  stories  the  survival  of  nature  myths. 


ANIMISM  247 

altogether  unexplained  the  instances  from  savage 
countries  quite  outside  the  range  of  Buddhist  influence 
even  through  dissemination.  Again,  as  Senart  has 
pointed  out,  the  Buddhist  teachers  probably  adopted 
already  existing  tales  to  serve  their  hortatory 
purposes,  as  did  the  mediaeval  monks  to  enforce 
Christian  doctrines.^  While  the  story  cycles,  as  such, 
may  have  had  a  single  origin,  the  idea  involved  in 
them  must  be  sought  in  some  world-wide  belief  which 
suggested  the  mere  incidents  of  animal  help  indepen- 
dently in  many  quarters. 

Such  a  belief  we  find  among  primitive  races 
everywhere,  while  the  survivals  in  folk-lore,  etc., 
among  higher  races  suffice  to  show  that  they  also 
have  passed  through  such  a  stage  of  belief.  It  is 
that  animistic  stage  of  thought  in  which  men,  having 
discovered  some  animating  principle  in  themselves, 
endow  all  other  living  creatures  and  also  inanimate 
things  with  the  same,  and  ascribe  to  them  a  person- 
ality equal  to  their  own.  Confining  ourselves  here  to 
animals,  it  is  obvious  that,  if  early  man  judged  them 
to  have  the  same  animating  principle  as  himself,  to 
be,  in  effect,  men  with  an  animal  form,  there  was  no 
limit  to  what  animals  might  not  do.  This  is  precisely 
the  stage  in  which  present-day  savages  now  are. 
That  animals  can  talk  and  act  like  men  in  every 
possible  way,  is  a  living  belief  with  Ainos,  Red 
Indians,  Australians,  Hottentots,  Negroes.  The 
Aino,  says  Mr  Chamberlain,  does  not  make-believe  in 
narrating  his  stories,  to  him  they  are  all  actual  facts  ; 
while  Mr  Dennett  says  of  the  tribes  of  the  Fjort  that 
they  are  yet  in  the  stage  at  which  it  is  believed  that 
animals  can  talk.^  But  to  multiply  proofs  of  the 
existence,  past  and  present,  of  such  a  stage  of  thought 
is  an  unnecessary  task  at  this  time  of  day.  The 
result  of  this  belief  is  a  curious  conception  of  the 


Journal  Asiatique,  1873,  p.  114. 
Chamberlain,  p.  3  ;  Dennett,  p.  69. 


248      FRIENDLY  ANIMALS :  PUSS  IN  BOOTS 

orig-in  of  men  and  animals.  Some  Red  Indian 
tribes  believe  that  in  the  beginnings  men  were 
animals,  and  animals  were  men ;  then  they  changed 
themselves  or  were  changed  into  what  they  are 
now.^  Obviously,  similarity  of  nature  is  predicated 
here.  Or  all  animals  were  first  men,  and  then  were 
changed  into  their  respective  shapes.^  Or,  as  in 
the  Arunta  belief,  men  were  at  first  of  an  amor- 
phous form,  midway  between  human  beings  and 
those  animals  whose  totem  names  they  were  eventu- 
ally to  bear.^ 

If  animals  shared  a  common  life  with  man  and 
were  in  all  things  like  him,  it  was  natural  that  kinship 
between  the  life  of  men  and  animals  should  have 
been  thought  possible  ;  while  this  and  the  fact  that 
some  animals  were  stronger,  and  some  more  subtle 
than  men,  led  on  to  their  worship.  Here,  then,  is  a 
stage  of  thought  in  which  help  rendered  by  animals 
to  man  is  neither  incredible  nor  irrational,  and  from 
it  we  may  readily  conceive  such  incidents  to  have 
sprung.  Men  who  worship  animals  as  divinities  do 
so  in  order  to  get  their  aid,  and  their  conclusion  is  that 
they  do  get  it.  In  some  cases,  then,  as  I  have  already 
hinted,  the  animals  who  help  men  in  folk-tales  were 
originally  animal  divinities.  An  Aino  legend  explain- 
ing why  the  screech-owl  is  worshipped,  may  be  cited 
here  in  this  connection.  These  birds  are  men  in  the 
spirit  world.  The  first  Aino  who  ever  saw  one  at 
once  offered  sacrifice  to  it,  and  during  the  night  a 
man  appeared  to  him  in  a  dream  and  thanked  him 
for  the  worship,  saying  he  would,  in  future,  point  out 
where  game  was  to  be  found,  and  warn  men  in  time 
of  danger.*  Again,  several  Slavonic  stories  in  which 
a  pike  figures  as  the  hero's  protector  may  be  traced 
to  a  period  when  the  pike  had  a  high  place  in  religion 

1  Petitot,  p.  275.  2  Leland,  A.L.,  p.  109. 

3  Spencer  and  Gillen,  Native  Tribes^  p.  388. 
*  Batchelor,  ed.  2,  p.  420. 


TOTEMISM  249 

and  mythology.^  But,  more  directly,  all  such  stories 
may  be  set  down  to  that  curious  institution  of  Totem- 
ism,  and  its  kindred  belief  in  personal  guardian 
animals,  represented  by  the  Red  Indian  manitou. 
However  Totemism  arose,  it  presupposes  the  animistic 
stage  of  thought.  Briefly,  it  may  be  described  as  an 
institution  in  which  a  human  clan  and  an  animal 
species  are  related  by  virtue  of  descent  from  a 
common  (animal)  ancestor.  The  clan  is  called  by 
the  name  of  the  animal  species  in  question ;  thus, 
among  the  Arunta,  we  have  such  totem-clans  as  the 
Little  Hawk,  Witchetty  Grub,  and  Lizard.  The 
animals  of  the  species  are  held  sacred ;  they,  or  the 
common  ancestor,  are  worshipped ;  while,  in  return, 
they  are  believed  to  protect  and  help  the  men  of  the 
same  clan  name.  To  us  this  is  as  irrational  as  the 
animal-help  incidents  of  folk-tales ;  to  those  who 
believe  in  Totemism  it  is  the  most  natural  thing  in 
the  world.  Our  folk-tale  incidents  have,  therefore,  a 
clear  link  of  connection  with  such  an  institution  as 
this.  This  becomes  all  the  more  likely  when  we  find 
that  Totemism  is  not  an  isolated  institution  among 
Australians,  Red  Indians,  and  the  like,  but  has 
entered  into  the  history  of  probably  every  branch  of 
the  human  race.  Most  savage  peoples  are  still 
governed  by  beliefs  and  customs  which  have  a 
totemistic  origin,  while  the  survivals  of  the  institu- 
tion among  ancient  Egyptians,  Semites,  and  Aryans 
speak  as  eloquently  of  a  forgotten  past  as  do  the 
fossils  of  the  sedimentary  strata  or  the  rude  flint 
weapons  of  the  drift. 

Where  Totemism  is  no  longer  a  living  institution 
among  lower  races,  the  belief  in  animal  assistance  is 
by  no  means  dead.  Thus  among  the  negroes  of  the 
Fjort  many  families  will  not  touch  certain  animals, 
because  their  ancestors  owed  them  a  deep  debt  of 

*  Ralston,  p.  266. 


250       FRIENDLY  ANIMALS :  PUSS  IN  BOOTS 

gratitude,  as  many  of  their  stories  describe.^  Such 
stories  are  setiological  myths  invented  to  explain 
why  the  animal  was  venerated.  At  a  later  time  they 
would  become  folk-tales,  viz.,  when  the  actual  rever- 
ence for  the  animal  had  become  a  thing-  of  the  past. 
So  it  does  not  astonish  us  to  find  a  man  in  a  Malagasy 
tale  making  a  blood-covenant  with  the  animals,  who 
then  assist  him  when  required.  The  dim  memory  of 
a  time  when  animal  kinship  was  believed  in,  as  well 
as  the  continuance  of  animistic  ideas,  suggests  the 
possibility  of  making  such  a  covenant.^ 

The  friendly  animal  of  our  folk-tales  may  also 
have  been  suggested  by  such  a  belief  as  that  of  the 
Red  Indian  in  his  manitou.  The  manitou  is  usually 
an  animal  which  makes  itself  known  to  the  youth  at 
puberty  in  a  dream,  and  thenceforth  becomes  his 
guardian  spirit,  and  is  inseparably  connected  with 
his  life,  implicit  faith  in  its  power  to  help  and  advise 
being  placed  in  it.  Among  the  Zapotecs  this  animal 
protector  was  called  a  tona  ;  among  the  Guatemalans, 
a  nagual ;  among  the  ancient  Peruvians,  a  pacarissa.^ 
Somewhat  akin  to  this  was  the  Roman  genius  which 
accompanied  every  man  through  life  as  his  protector, 
and  frequently  took  shape  as  a  serpent.*  It  is  possible 
that  such  a  belief  was  cherished  by  other  races ;  at 
all  events  it  has  its  analogy  in  the  common  custom 
of  transferring  one's  soul  to  an  animal  or  plant  for 
safety,^  while,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Calabar  Negroes 
already  referred  to,  who  believe  that  man  has  four 
souls,  one  of  these  is  held  to  live  in  an  animal  out  in 
the  bush,  and  with  it  the  owner's  life  is  inextricably 
mixed  up.^    It  is  easy  to  see  how  such  beliefs  may 

1  Dennett,  p.  lo.  Cf.  p.  148.  One  family  will  not  eat  pigeon, 
because  an  ancestor,  imprisoned  in  a  cave,  was  helped  by  one,  which 
scratched  a  hole  and  let  light  into  his  prison. 

2  F.LJ.,  i.  307. 

^  See  my  Religion^  its  Origin  and  Forms,  pp.  44-5. 
*  Jevon's  Plutarch's  Romane  Questions,  xlvii.  seq. 
^  See  chap.  v.  ^  Miss  Kingsley,  p.  208. 


TRANSMIGRATION  251 

have  g-iven  rise  to  folk-tales  of  helpful  animals.  Some 
of  our  North  American  tales  are  a  direct  instance  of 
this. 

Or,  again,  another  primitive  belief  may  have 
suggested  the  idea,  viz.,  the  belief  that  a  man's  soul 
enters  into  an  animal  or  takes  animal  form  after 
death,  and  then  acts  as  protector  of  his  household. 
The  Zulus  believe  that  certain  snakes  which  are  seen 
about  a  house  are  such  ancestors  ;  they  speak  to  men 
in  dreams,  and  are  much  revered  by  them.^  So  many 
of  the  aboriginal  races  of  India  think  that  such 
house-haunting  animals  as  the  snake  or  rat  are 
ancestral  ghosts  who  have  returned  to  protect  their 
descendants.^  Where  totemism  is  still  a  living 
belief  it  is  commonly  held,  as  among  some  Red 
Indian  tribes,  that  a  man  assumes  the  form  of  his 
clan's  totem  animal  at  death.^ 

All  these  various  beliefs  point  back  to  a  time 
when  it  was  far  from  irrational  to  credit  animals  with 
the  power  of  helping  men,  while  they  show  whence 
such  incidents  in  folk-tales  arose.  Once  the  idea 
was  incorporated  in  a  story,  the  variations  on  the 
theme  would  become  endless. 

In  such  savage  tales  as  the  Zulu  and  Kafir 
versions  of  an  animal  which  causes  child-birth ;  the 
Uganda  Puss  in  Boots  story;  that  of  the  Pawnee 
horse ;  or  the  Malagasy  story  of  animals  helping 
the  youngest  brother,  we  see  precisely  the  incidents 
out  of  which  the  more  complex  cycles  of  the  King  of 
the  Fishes,  Puss  in  Boots,  the  Magic  Horse,  and 
the  Youngest  Son  with  his  friendly  animals,  were 
respectively  formed,  possibly  at  a  time  when  animal 
help  was  still  firmly  believed  in.  Then  as  a  stage 
was  reached  when  the  belief  had  become  more  or  less 
irrational,  it  was  made  more  credible  by  the  sug- 

^  Callaway,  p.  196  seq. 

2  Lyell,  Asiatic  Studies^  2nd  sen,  299. 

^  Frazer,  Totemism^  p.  22. 


252      FRIENDLY  ANIMALS :  PUSS  IN  BOOTS 

gfestion,  occurring"  in  some  variants  of  such  cycles, 
that  the  animal  was  really  a  man  transformed  by 
diablerie  into  that  form.  Or,  in  some  cases,  as  in 
those  tales  which  may  be  traced  to  India,  the  irrational 
stories  were  taken  up  by  religion,  and  made  to  serve 
a  rational  purpose  as  vehicles  of  ethical  lessons. 


CHAPTER  IX 

BEAST-MARRIAGES  :   BEAUTY  AND   THE   BEAST 

Of  all  the  irrational  incidents  of  folk-tales  none 
is  more  irrational  than  that  in  which  a  human 
being  is  wedded  to  a  beast.  In  the  more  primitive 
versions  the  beast  is  a  beast  pure  and  simple ;  in  the 
more  elaborate  forms  of  the  tale  it  is  an  enchanted 
prince  or  princess.  Perrault's  tale  of  Beauty  and  the 
Beast  is  the  classic  example  of  this  second  form,  but 
it  has  parallels  in  every  European  country.  The 
Beauty  and  Beast  cycle  has  a  link  of  connection  with 
the  Cupid  and  Psyche  cycle,  but  whereas  in  the  former 
the  beast-marriage  is  the  outstanding  incident,  in  the 
latter  it  is  the  broken  tabu.  Both,  however,  have 
been  influenced  by  that  stage  of  primitive  thought  in 
which  the  possibility  of  such  a  union  was  far  from 
being  incredible.  Citing  first  some  versions  of  the 
Beauty  and  Beast  cycle,  we  shall  follow  it  in  its  more 
primitive  forms  throughout  the  world. 

The  story  as  told  among  the  Basques  relates  that 
a  king  on  leaving  home  asked  his  three  daughters 
what  he  would  bring  them.  The  youngest  asked  for 
a  flower.  When  plucking  the  flower  in  a  garden  the 
king  heard  a  voice  asking  what  he  was  doing,  and 
telling  him  he  must  bring  one  of  his  daughters  within 
the  year  or  he  and  his  kingdom  would  be  burned.^ 

1  This  links  the  cycle  on  to  the  Promised  Child  cycle  (p.  421).  We 
may  here  have  a  reminiscence  of  the  primitive  idea  that  no  tree  or 
plant  should  be  cut  without  propitiating  the  indwelling  spirit. 

253 


254  BEAST-MARRIAGES 

The  youngest  daughter  went,  slept  in  the  castle  all 
night,  but  saw  no  one.  In  the  morning  a  voice  said, 
**  Shut  your  eyes  ;  I  wish  to  place  my  head  on  your 
knees."  The  voice  was  that  of  an  enormous  serpent, 
but  the  girl  was  not  hurt,  and  continued  to  live 
happily.  One  day  she  was  allowed  to  go  home  for 
three  days,  and  was  given  a  ring  which  would  tell  her 
the  condition  of  her  serpent  lover.  On  the  fourth 
day  she  found  it  blood-red,  and  hurried  off.  The 
serpent  was  nowhere  to  be  found.  At  last  she  dis- 
covered him,  and  he  asked  her  to  be  his  wife.  She 
agreed,  and  on  the  way  to  her  father's  palace  the 
serpent  was  changed  into  a  beautiful  youth,  who  gave 
the  girl  a  serpent's  skin,  and  bade  her  burn  it  before 
the  clock  had  ceased  striking  at  midnight  or  he  would 
be  miserable  ever  after.  She  performed  this  duty 
successfully,  and  a  voice  was  heard  saying,  **  I  curse 
your  cleverness  and  what  you  have  done."  In  this 
as  in  two  other  Basque  variants  the  monster  is  a  man 
bewitched  until  some  woman  will  love  him  in  his 
monster  form.^ 

There  are  Polish,  Tyrolese,  Italian,  Sicilian, 
Portuguese,  and  Lithuanian  versions  of  this  tale,  all 
emphasising  the  girl's  forgetfulness  and  disobedience 
in  staying  too  long  at  home,  while  the  Lithuanian 
story  gives  a  curious  turn  to  the  skin  incident.^  The 
girl  is  united  to  a  white  wolf ;  her  mother  burns  his 
skin,  and  she  has  to  go  to  seek  him  in  consequence. 
A  Magyar  variant  introduces  a  pig  who  helps  a  king 
out  of  a  difficulty  on  condition  that  he  gives  him  his 
youngest  daughter.  The  pig  marries  her,  and  becomes 
a  handsome  youth  who  had  been  condemned  to  that 
form  until  a  girl  should  ask  for  speaking  grapes,  a 
smiling  apple,   and  tinkling   apricots.^    The    Greek 

^  Webster,  p.  167  seq. 

2  Toeppen,  p.  142.     Zingerle,  ii.  391.     Comparetti,  p.  64.     Pitre, 
No.  39.     Coelho,  No.  29.     Leskien,  No.  23. 
^  Jones,  p.  130. 


A  KASHMIR  TALE  255 

version  differs  from  these.  The  king-  brings  his 
daughter  a  melodious  napkin,  and  she  has  no  sooner 
hungf  it  up  than  an  eagfle  appears.  He  is  king  of 
birds,  snakes,  and  insects,  and  when  with  her  takes 
human  form.  Her  sisters  strew  broken  g-lass  on  the 
window  by  which  he  enters  the  palace,  and  next  time 
he  cannot  enter,  and  flies  off  hurt  and  bleeding.  In 
the  sequel  he  is  restored  by  the  princess,  and  the 
jealous  sisters  are  destroyed.  This  story,  in  which 
there  is  no  enchantment,  has  a  number  of  variants, 
Italian,  Norse,  Indian,  though  in  some  (Roman, 
Indian)  the  prince  is  a  man  and  nothing  more.^  They 
resemble  another  Italian  story,  in  which  a  snake 
demands  a  woodman's  daughter  on  pain  of  death  if 
refused.  In  the  palace  to  which  she  is  carried  off, 
the  snake  becomes  a  handsome  man,  who  forbids  her 
to  reveal  his  secret.  Her  sisters  worm  it  out  of  her, 
when  prince  and  palace  disappear.  Not  till  she  has 
worn  out  a  pair  of  iron  shoes  does  she  find  him, 
married,  alas,  to  another  wife.  Happily,  when  he 
discovers  his  first  love  he  goes  off  with  her,  leaving- 
his  palace  as  a  consolation  to  the  second  wife.^  A 
Kashmir  story,  which  has  some  likeness  to  this, 
illustrates  more  clearly  the  danger  of  breaking  a  tabu^ 
A  princess  has  married  a  water-snake  who  can  take 
the  form  of  a  beautiful  youth.  But  he  has  already 
several  serpent- wives,  one  of  whom  takes  human  form 
and  tells  the  princess  he  is  of  low  caste,  and  to  prove 
it  let  her  ask  him  to  throw  himself  into  the  water. 
Once  in  the  water,  he  will  be  in  his  wives'  power ;  but 
though  he  urges  this  the  princess  insists,  and,  of 
course,  loses  him.  Later,  she  discovers  him;  he 
changes  her  into  a  pebble  and  takes  her  below  the 
water  where,  in  human  form,  she  is  bitten  to  death 
by  the  jealous  serpent- wives.     In  the  sequel  she  is 

1  Gamett,  ii.  3  ;  F.L.J. ^  ii.  241.    Basile,  Pentamerofte,  i.  46  ;  Crane, 
p.  12  ;  Busk,  p.  57  (Italian).  Tales  from  Fjeld,  p.  311.    Stokes,  p.  195. 

2  Gubematis,  No.  14. 


256  BEAST-MARRIAGES 

restored  to  life,  and  the  pair  live  happily  ever 
after.  ^ 

Another  form  of  the  enchanted  animal  bridegfroom 
group  is  that  of  the  Wooing-  Frog,  exemplified  in  the 
English  tale  of  the  Well  at  the  World's  End.  Here 
a  stepdaughter  is  sent  to  fill  a  sieve  at  the  well ;  the 
frog  advises  her  to  daub  it  with  moss  and  clay,  asking 
her,  in  return,  to  do  what  he  tells  her  a  whole  night 
long.  She  returns  home,  and  at  night  the  frog 
arrives  and  demands  to  sleep  with  her.  The  curtain 
falls  till  morning,  when  the  frog  bids  her  chop  off  his 
head.  A  handsome  prince  who  had  been  enchanted 
till  a  girl  should  obey  him  for  a  whole  night,  immedi- 
ately appeared.^  We  have  already  noted  that  the 
animal  in  the  true  Beauty  and  Beast  cycle  retains 
his  form  till  disenchanted  by  the  human  lover.  This 
frog  story  suggests  the  horror  which  must  be  over- 
come first,  and  is  typical  of  a  whole  series  of  reptilian 
bridegroom  stories.  Here  is  a  Kafir  example,  part 
of  the  story  of  the  Bird  who  made  Milk.  One  of  the 
children  who  escaped  from  their  father  meets  a  friendly 
crocodile,  which  takes  him  under  the  water,  gives  him 
cattle  and  one  of  his  daughters,  and  bids  him  bring 
his  sister  to  him.  When  she  arrives,  the  crocodile 
says,  ''  Lick  my  face."  She  consents,  and  in  the 
process  he  casts  his  skin  and  a  handsome  man 
appears,  who  tells  her  that  he  had  been  bewitched  by 
his  enemies,  but  that  his  wife's  devotion  is  stronger 
than  their  magic.  We  have  a  similar  example  of  this 
idea,  which  is  of  course  that  of  Keats's  Lamia,  in  an 
Esthonian  story,  but  with  the  sexes  reversed.^ 

A  herd-boy  made  friends  with  a  white  snake,  which 
used  to  play  with  him  and  twine  round  his  leg.     One 

^  Knowles,  p.  491. 

2  Jacobs,  p.  215,  from  "The  Complaynt  of  Scotland."  Grimm 
gives  several  variants  in  his  notes  to  "  The  Frog  Prince."  Cf.  also 
Child,  English  and  Scottish  Ballads^  i.  298. 

^  Theal,  p.  29.     Cf.  p.  321  infra. 


SERPENT-LOVERS  257 

midsummer  eve,  feelingf  very  sad,  the  youth  beheld  a 
lovely  maiden  who  told  him  she  was  the  daughter  of  an 
Eastern  king",  enchanted  for  many  centuries  to  the 
form  of  a  white  snake,  with  permission  to  resume  her 
human  shape  on  this  particular  night  every  twenty- 
five  years.  He  is  the  first  human  being  who  has  not 
fled  from  her.  When  next  she  appears,  she  will  wind 
herself  three  times  round  his  body  and  kiss  him  three 
times.  He  must  not  shrink,  or  she  will  remain  a 
snake  for  ever.  When  she  kissed  him  the  youth  stood 
firm,  and  with  a  crash  and  flash,  found  himself  in  a 
wonderful  palace  side  by  side  with  the  beautiful  girl, 
who  now  became  his  wife.^  We  have  precisely  the 
same  incident  in  the  Scots  ballad  of  KempioUy  while 
in  a  Russian  tale  the  hero,  changed  to  the  form  of  *'a 
terrible  snake  "  by  a  foe,  recovers  his  true  shape  when 
a  girl  is  induced  to  kiss  him.^ 

Other  stories,  of  which  some  more  elaborate  types 
have  been  cited,  are  probably  earlier  than  those  in 
which  enchantment  has  produced  the  beast  form. 
The  hero  has  himself  the  power  of  transformation, 
and  is  usually,  though  not  always,  an  animal 
possessed  of  this  power.  A  Kafir  maiden  became  the 
wife  of  a  chief,  who  appears  as  a  five-headed  snake, 
but  later  becomes  a  man.  A  Russian  story  has  some 
resemblance  to  this.  Some  girls  were  bathing,  when 
a  snake  came  out  of  the  water  and  sat  upon  the 
clothes  of  one  of  them,  nor  would  he  move  till  she 
promised  to  marry  him.  She  agreed,  and  that  night 
an  army  of  snakes  came  and  seized  her,  diving  into 

1  Kirby,  i.  308.  The  lamia  of  Keats's  poem,  like  that  of  Philo- 
stratus,  De  Vita  Apollonii^  bk.  iv.,  is  a  phantasmal  serpent,  who 
vanishes  when  her  secret  is  discovered.  She  is  twin  sister  to 
Melusina,  the  serpent-woman,  who  must  never  be  seen  in  her  serpent 
form  by  her  husband.  These  stories  form  the  strongest  link  of 
connection  between  those  we  are  now  examining  and  the  Cupid  and 
Psyche  (tabu)  cycle.     For  Melusina,  see  Baring-Gould,  p.  471. 

2  Scott,  Minstrelsy^  p.  345.  Ralston,  Songs  of  the  Russian  Pe(^le^ 
p.  174. 

R 


258  BEAST-MARRIAGES 

the  water  with  her.  There  they  became  men  and 
women.  After  staying  some  years  with  her  husband, 
she  was  allowed  to  go  home,  where  her  mother  dis- 
covered her  husband's  name,  and  going  to  the  water 
called  on  him.  He  came  up  to  the  surface,  and  she 
instantly  chopped  off  his  head  with  her  axe.  It  is 
not  expressly  said  that  the  snake  forbade  his  wife  to 
tell  his  name,  but  it  is  evident  that  here  we  have  a 
very  early  version  of  the  broken  tabu  incident,  as  the 
result  is  absolutely  fatal,  which  it  seldom  is  in  stories 
of  the  kind.^  A  fiery  snake  is  a  common  figure  in 
Russian  lore,  the  antagonist  of  handsome  heroes,  the 
abductor  of  pretty  women,  and  sometimes  kills  and 
eats  his  fair  prisoners,  but  is  more  usually  destroyed 
by  their  lovers  or  brothers.^  A  Zuni  story  tells  how 
the  daughter  of  a  chief  bathed  in  a  pool  sacred  to 
Kolowissi,  the  serpent  of  the  sea.  Kolowissi  was 
angry,  and  took  the  form  of  a  child,  which  the  maiden 
carried  home  to  her  room.  There  it  became  a 
monstrous  serpent,  with  whom  it  was  decided  she 
must  depart.  As  she  went  off  with  the  serpent  lean- 
ing his  head  on  her  shoulder,  he  changed  to  a  beauti- 
ful youth,  who  spoke  to  her.  She  looked  round  and 
saw  his  face  instead  of  that  of  the  dreaded  serpent. 
She  was  incredulous,  but  he  showed  her  his  shrivelled 
serpent  skin  in  proof,  told  her  he  was  the  god  of  the 
waters,  that  he  loved  her  and  would  make  her  his 
wife.^  This  tale  has  many  resemblances  to  one  told 
in   Guiana  among  the  Guaranos.     iVfter  the  flood 

^  Theal,  p.  47.  Ralston,  p.  116.  The  idea  of  a  serpent  race 
living  under  the  water  is  widespread,  and  is  found  in  Japan,  India, 
and  elsewhere.  In  the  Zuni  and  Guiana  tales  which  follow,  the  ser- 
pent is  a  water-sprite,  and  in  primitive  belief  the  spirit  of  the 
waters  is  frequently  conceived  as  a  serpent  (see  p.  407).  As  man's 
religious  conceptions  advance  his  worshipful  spirits  and  gods  assume 
more  and  more  a  human  form,  but  preserve  traces  of  their  animal 
form,  and  from  this  such  tales  take  their  origin. 

2  Ralston,  Son^^s  of  Russian  People^  p.  173  seq. 

"^  Gushing,  p.  93. 


SERPENT-LOVERS  259 

they  were  warned  to  beware  of  one  lake.  Ag"es 
passed,  and  two  gfirls  went  to  bathe  there.  The 
elder  saw  a  piece  of  charmed  wood  floating- ;  she  took 
it  up,  thus  breaking-  the  charm,  and  it  became  a  man, 
or  rather  a  water-spirit  enchanted  by  a  mightier 
power  till  some  one  should  pick  up  the  piece  of  wood. 
He  seized  the  girl  and  took  her  with  him,  allowing- 
her  to  return  home  after  some  time.  There  she  gave 
birth  to  a  daughter.  Then  she  heard  how  her  lover 
was  disporting  himself  in  the  lake,  now  as  a  snake,  now 
as  a  man,  now  as  a  being  with  both  natures.  She 
went  to  see  for  herself,  and  was  again  captured  by  the 
snake.  This  time  she  g-ave  birth  to  a  son.  This 
child  was  killed  by  her  brothers,  but  came  to  life 
again,  and  was  the  ancestor  of  the  Carib  race.^ 

The  serpent  of  the  Zuni  and  Carib  stories  is  a 
divinity ;  before  citing  some  other  tales  in  which  the 
beast  lover  is  a  god,  I  shall  refer  to  one  from  New 
Guinea,  which  presents  some  parallel  features  to  the 
Zuni  tale.  A  beautiful  girl  was  beloved  by  the  chief 
of  a  strange  tribe,  who  feared  to  enter  her  father's 
territory  lest  he  should  be  killed.  A  sorcerer  gave 
him  a  charm  which  enabled  him  to  become  a  snake 
as  soon  as  he  crossed  the  boundary,  and  in  this  form 
he  entered  the  girl's  hut.  She  screamed,  but  her 
father  saw  he  was  really  a  man,  and  bade  her  go 
with  him,  because  he  must  be  a  great  chief  to  be  able 
thus  to  transform  himself.  The  girl  obeyed,  but  at 
the  boundary  the  snake  disappeared.  Presently  a 
handsome  youth  came  up  to  her,  and  told  her  he  was 
the  snake,  showing  certain  burns  on  his  feet  and  legs. 
This  convinced  her,  because,  following  her  father's 
advice  she  had  burnt  the  snake  with  a  hot  banana 
leaf  to  make  him  go  faster.^ 

1  Brett,  p.  64. 

^  Romilly,  p.  98.  Cf.  the  werwolf  idea,  that  when  the  animal  is 
wounded  the  witch  who  has  taken  that  form  is  found  with  a  similar 
wound. 


260  BEAST-MARRIAGES 

Classical  mythologfy  has  made  everyone  familiar 
with  the  custom  of  the  gods  to  assume  bestial  forms 
for  amorous  ends.  Such  myths  are  survivals  of  a 
time  when  the  god  was  believed  to  be  an  animal,  as 
is  shown  by  similar  stories  from  a  lower  stage  of 
culture.  On  the  other  side  of  the  world  the  Hervey 
Islanders  tell  of  Ina-moe-aitu,  who  used  to  bathe 
daily  in  a  stream  where  dwelt  a  huge  eel.  One  day 
the  eel  changed  into  a  young  man,  and  told  her  he  was 
Tuna  the  eel-god,  and  that  he  had  fallen  in  love  with 
her.  From  that  day  he  loved  her  in  human  form, 
but  resumed  his  eel-shape  on  returning  to  the  water. ^ 
The  origin  of  a  dangerous  rock  on  the  river  Faleme 
in  Senegambia  is  thus  explained.  Penda,  a  chief's 
daughter,  used  to  go  secretly  to  the  riverside  to  meet 
her  handsome  lover.  One  night  he  proposed  that 
they  should  flee,  and  leapt  with  her  into  the  river. 
She  found  herself  dragged  down  to  its  depths,  where 
she  was  placed  in  a  submarine  palace.  Her  lover 
spoke  to  her ;  she  turned  and  beheld  a  frightful 
caiman,  whom  she  resisted  with  all  her  power.  She 
called  on  her  family  divinity  to  aid  her,  and  he  turned 
her  into  stone.  Obviously,  the  caiman  is  a  water- 
divinity  in  this  tale,  though  I  shall  presently  cite 
some  parallels  where  he  is  a  beast  pure  and  simple.^ 
The  Ainos  have  many  such  stories,  especially  of  beast- 
goddesses,  who  take  human  form  and  disport  them- 
selves with  men.  The  bear  is  still  looked  upon  as  half- 
human,  and  many  stories  relate  how  the  bear-goddess, 
as  a  beautiful  woman,  had  amours  with  men.  On  the 
other  hand  the  god  of  mountains  is  a  bear,  who  takes 
a  man's  form.  On  one  occasion  he  visited  a  woman, 
and  the  child  of  their  union  became  a  mighty  hunter, 
from  whom  many  Ainos  still  trace  their  descent.^ 

1  Gill,  p.  ^^.     Cf.  Clarke,  p.  68,  for  a  Maori  parallel. 

2  B^renger-F^raud,  Contes^  No.  8. 

3  Chamberlain,  p.  45  ;  Batchelor,  p,  8,  Cf.  the  bear-stories  cited, 
infra^  p.  270. 


THE  POX  WOMAN  261 

The  curious  fox-superstition  which,  originating-  in 
China,  has  become  naturalised  among  Japanese  and 
Ainos  alike,  must  have  originated  from  the  belief  in 
a  divinity  who  was  a  fox.  Its  ramifications  are 
various ;  suffice  it  to  say  here  that,  with  all  three 
races  no  story  is  commoner  than  that  of  the  fox  who 
assumes  the  form  of  a  very  pretty  girl  and  weds  a 
man.  In  a  Chinese  version  she  dies,  and  all  that 
remains  is  the  dead  body  of  a  fox.  Similar  stories 
are  found  among  the  Eskimo,  probably  as  a  result  of 
borrowing.  Thus  a  lonely  bachelor  always  found 
his  house  tidied  up  when  he  returned  home.  One 
day  he  suddenly  entered ;  there  was  a  strong  smell, 
and  he  found  a  little  woman  working.  She  was  a  fox 
in  disguise,  and  he  married  her.  Later  she  ran  away 
because  the  man's  jealous  cousin  mentioned  the 
tabued  subject  of  fox's  smell  !^  Some  African  wife 
tabu  stories  are  like  this,  but  a  Basuto  tale  affords 
an  almost  identical  parallel.  I  have  cited  it  in  the 
chapter  on  Helpful  Animals.  Has  it  been  separately 
evolved  by  Basutos  and  Eskimo,  or  have  we  here 
merely  far-travelled  variants  of  one  large  cycle,  with 
similar  details,  e.£^.,  tidying  up  the  hut  in  the  man's 
absence  ?  ^ 

^  Giles,  i.  182.  Hearn,  Unfamiliar  J apan^  i.,  312  seq.\  Griffis, 
"Japanese  Fox  Myths  "in  Lippincotfs  Magazine^  1873  J  Chamberlain, 
p.  II  seq.     Rink,  p.  143. 

'^  See  p.  228.  A  Guiana  tale  contains  the  tidying-up  incident,  and  is 
nearly  parallel  to  these  stories,  but  lacks  the  tabu  incident.  It  is  cited  on 
p.  1 56.  See  also  p.  261  for  a  Negro  version.  For  the  tidying-up  incident, 
see  the  Khyoungtha  tale  on  p.  292.  The  heroine  emerges  from  a  lamp. 
It  also  occurs  in  some  of  the  Catskin  and  Cap  o'  Rushes  tales,  see 
Miss  Cox's  note  in  Cinderella^  p.  488.  There  the  heroine  comes  out 
usually  to  get  food.  She  is  hid  in  a  box,  candelabrum,  etc.,  which 
the  prince  buys.  Cf.  the  stories  where  a  girl  emerges  from  fruit, 
pp.  1 14,  129.  In  an  Iroquois  story  a  dead  wife  performs  the  same  kind 
offices  for  her  mourning  husband. — E.  Smith,  "  Myths  of  the  Iroquois," 
in  Annual  Report  of  Bureau  of  Ethnology^  1882-83,  p.  103.  In  a 
Melanesian  story  a  man's  blood,  preserved  in  a  bamboo,  changes  into 
a  youth  who  comes  out  secretly  and  does  the  housework. — Codrington, 
p.  406. 


262  BEAST-MARRIAGfiS 

In  such  a  story  there  is  no  trace  of  hidden  divinity 
in  the  beast-wife,  nor  does  it  usually  appear  in  the 
folk-tale  pure  and  simple.  A  common  story  in  the 
East  is  that  of  the  woman  who,  as  a  result  of  magical 
methods  of  causing  fruitfulness,  gives  birth  to  an 
animal.  In  one  version  this  animal  is  a  monkey,  in 
another  a  serpent.  A  princess  falls  in  love  with  the 
animal  and  marries  him.  By  day  he  is  an  animal,  at 
night  he  removes  his  skin  and  becomes  a  man,  and 
is  made  to  retain  this  shape  permanently  by  the  skin 
being-  burned  to  ashes.  This  is  a  point  to  be  borne 
in  mind.  Meanwhile,  I  cite  two  Red  Indian  tales. 
The  first,  from  the  Hareskin  tribe,  relates  how  a 
man  disappeared  from  his  wife's  side  by  night ;  traces 
of  reindeer  tracks  were  seen  in  the  snow  next  morning. 
Long  after,  his  son  saw  a  reindeer  with  a  human 
head-dress.  He  killed  it  and  brought  it  to  his  mother, 
who  lay  down  beside  the  carcase,  when  it  recovered 
life  and  became  a  man.  The  Dog-rib  Indians  tell 
how  a  woman  lived  with  her  brothers.  A  stranger 
came  to  their  tent ;  they  gave  their  sister  to  him  for 
a  wife.  During  the  night  a  dog  was  heard  where  no 
dog  should  be,  and  the  brothers  threw  missiles  at  it 
until  they  killed  it,  saying,  ''This  dog,  a  man  during 
the  day,  and  married  to  our  sister,  changed  himself 
into  a  dog."  They  drove  their  sister  from  the 
wigwam.  She  gave  birth  to  six  puppies,  three  of 
which  remained  dogs,  but  three  turned  to  children 
who  became  the  ancestors  of  the  Dog-rib  tribe.  ^  We 
may  note  here,  in  connection  with  this  and  other  tales 
cited  in  this  chapter,  that  stories  of  women  giving 
birth  to  animals  are  found  all  over  the  world.  An 
Aino  girl  gave  birth  to  a  snake  as  the  result  of  the 
sun's  rays  shining  on  her  while  she  slept ;  the  snake 
turned  into  a  child.  The  Dyaks  and  Silakans  will 
not  kill  the  cobra  because,  long  ago,  one  of  their 
female  ancestors  brought  forth  twins,  a  boy  and  a 

^  Petitot,  pp.  262,  311. 


ANIMAL  BIRTHS  263 

cobra.  The  cobra  went  to  the  forest,  but  told  the 
mother  to  warn  her  children  that  if  they  were  ever 
bitten  by  cobras  they  must  remain  for  a  day  in  the 
same  place,  and  the  venom  would  have  no  effect. 
This  custom  is  still  followed ;  probably  the  story  is 
thus  an  setiolog"ical  myth.  The  boy  met  his  cobra 
brother  in  the  jungle  and  accidentally  cut  off  his  tail — 
hence  all  cobras  have  now  a  blunted  tail.  The 
Javans  also  think  that  a  woman  occasionally  may 
g-ive  birth  to  a  child  and  a  crocodile,  which  is  put  into 
the  river  by  the  midwife,  the  twin  and  the  family 
afterwards  throwing-  food  into  the  water  for  it  to  eat. 
In  Eskimo  stories  women  give  birth  to  puppies, 
bears,  etc.,  while  in  Scandinavian  mythology  two  of 
the  offspring  of  Loke  and  Angurboda  were  the 
Fenris  wolf  and  the  Midgard  serpent.  So  Pasi- 
phae  gave  birth  to  the  Minotaur,  and  Mugain, 
in  Celtic  mythology,  to  a  lamb  and  a  trout. 
The  idea  also  occurs  sporadically  among  civi- 
lised races  of  a  superstitious  cast  of  mind,  aided 
probably  by  the  knowledge  of  actual  "monstrous 
births."^ 

Stories  of  canine  descent  are  common  among  the 
American  tribes,  as  well  as  among  other  races,  while 
one  people  frequently  taunts  another  with  such  an 
ancestry.  Usually  the  dog  does  not  change  to  a 
man,  and  one  or  two  instances  of  this  may  fitly 
introduce  a  number  of  similar  tales  from  a  low  level 
of  culture,  and  representing  the  primitive  phase  of 
the  Beauty  and  Beast  cycle.  The  Red  Indians  say 
the  first  woman  took  a  dog  to  mate,  and  that  the 
different  tribes  are  descended  from  her.     This  story 

^  Chamberlain,  p.  43.  St  John,  i.  196.  Hawkesworth's  Voyages, 
iii.  756.  Rink,  pp.  77^  412,  471.  Thorpe,  N.M.^  ii.  59.  Cf.  Miss 
Cox's  Cinderella  for  other  examples,  p.  488,  and  the  suggested 
monstrous  births  in  the  Jealous  Sisters  cycle.  For  comparatively 
modern  Scottish  and  New  England  cases,  see  Calderwood's  History, 
vii.  164,  and  Drake's  New  England  Legends,  p.  39. 


264  BEAST-MARRIAGES 

has  spread  to  the  Eskimo,  who  tell  it  both  of  Indians 
and  Europeans.  A  woman  had  ten  children  by  a 
dogf.  Five  became  erkileks  or  inlanders,  the  others 
she  set  afloat  on  a  boat,  which  turned  to  a  ship,  and 
they  themselves  became  Europeans.  In  the  same 
way  the  Japanese  say  the  Ainos  are  descended  from 
a  dog";  while  the  Kalang-s  of  Java  hold  that  they 
themselves  are  descended  from  a  princess  and  a  dog", 
who,  however,  according  to  some  versions,  was  a 
transformed  chiefs 

Sometimes,  as  in  several  stories  already  cited,  the 
serpent  is  the  animal  mate.  I  shall  refer  first  to  a 
curious  Basuto  tale.  An  old  woman  found  a  g"irl 
deserted  by  her  friends,  and  took  her  home,  saying 
she  would  make  a  nice  wife  for  her  son.  He  was  a 
serpent  whom  no  one  had  ever  seen  outside  his  hut, 
but  he  had  married  all  the  girls  of  the  tribe  in 
succession,  with  fatal  results  to  them,  because  he  ate 
all  the  food.  The  girl  was  awakened  every  morning 
with  a  blow  of  the  serpent's  tail,  and  was  then 
ordered  to  go  and  prepare  his  food.  Tired  of  this 
treatment,  she  resolved  on  flight.  The  serpent 
pursued  her,  but  the  girl  sang  a  charm  which  stayed 
him  for  a  time.  Then  she  resumed  her  flight, 
renewing  the  process  whenever  the  serpent  overtook 
her.  At  last  she  arrived  at  her  father's  village,  and 
told  her  story.  The  people  got  ready  for  the 
serpent's  arrival,  and  as  soon  as  it  appeared, 
Senkepeng  sang  her  charm,  and  they  then  attacked 
it  and  slew  it.  Soon  the  serpent's  mother  arrived, 
and  taking  the  dismembered  body,  burned  it  to 
ashes,  which  she  wrapped  in  a  skin  and  threw  into  a 
pond.  Going  thrice  round  the  pond  without  saying 
a  word,  she  caused  her  son  to  come  to  life  again, 
and  he  emerged  from  the  pond  as  a  handsome  youth, 

1  Liebrecht,   p.    17  seq.      Rink,   p.   471  ;    Nansen,   Eskifno  Life, 
pp.  71-7  ;  Batchelor,  2nd  ed.,  p.  6.      L Anthropologie^  v.  345. 


MORE  SERPENT  LOVERS  265 

whom  Senkepeng  was  quite  content  to  marry. ^ 
Among  the  Dindje  Indians  it  is  told  how  the  first 
man,  Dindje,  had  two  wives,  one  of  whom  would 
have  nothing-  to  say  to  him,  and  disappeared  all  day. 
He  followed  her  and  saw  her  enter  a  marsh,  where  a 
serpent  twined  itself  round  her.  When  she  returned 
to  the  hut  she  had  several  children,  whom  she  hid 
under  a  cover.  Raising-  it,  the  man  saw  horrible 
little  men-serpents,  which  he  at  once  killed.  There- 
upon the  woman  left  him,  and  he  saw  her  no  more. 
In  a  Chippewaya  variant  the  woman  has  several 
serpent  lovers,  whom  her  husband  entices  out  of  the 
hollow  trunk  where  they  live,  by  counterfeiting 
her  voice ;  then  he  kills  them  and  forces  his  wife  to 
eat  them.  She  goes  to  the  tree  and  bewails  them ; 
her  husband  cuts  off  her  head,  which  pursues  him, 
and  when  he  pulverises  it  with  a  hatchet,  it  turns 
into  a  cloud  of  gnats  and  mosquitoes.^  Such  a  story 
is  found  in  both  the  American  continents.  Among 
the  Eskimo  it  is  related  that  a  girl  left  home,  and 
long  after  returned,  carrying  her  offspring  in  her  hood. 
It  was  a  horrible  reptile,  and  her  husband,  she  said, 
was  not  of  human  race,  and  none  must  seek  him. 
Her  brothers,  however,  followed  her  to  her  house, 
killed  the  offspring,  and  then  waited  till  the  monster 
came.     It  was  a  hideous  reptile,  which  twined  itself 

^  Jacottet,  p.  214.  In  other  versions  the  ashes  are  put  in  a  vase 
of  clay,  which  is  given  to  Senkepeng  to  keep.  Sometime  after  she 
uncovers  it,  and  a  youth  steps  out  of  it.  Cf.  a  similar  incident  in 
South  African  tales  on  p.  129.  In  another  tale  which  is  a  variant  of 
the  Kafir  story  of  Sikulume,  Sekholomi  is  pursued  by  the  old  cannibal 
hags.  He  evades  them,  but  falls  into  a  marsh,  where  a  snake 
twines  itself  round  him,  and  whenever  he  gets  free  goes  after  him. 
But,  arrived  at  his  village,  his  friends  kill  it.  An  old  woman  rushes  up 
and  declares  they  have  killed  her  son.  She  had  caused  him  to 
assume  serpent  shape  in  order  to  kill  the  hero. — Ibid.^  p.  263. 

2  Petitot,  pp.  16,  407.  Leland  cites  similar  tales,  A.L.^  p.  274  seq. 
See  Bonifacius,  Historia  Ludicra^  for  the  classical  instances  of  women 
with  serpent  lovers.  For  the  carcase  turning  to  insects,  see 
p.  25. 


266  BEAST-MARRIAGES 

round  their  sister's  body  till  only  her  hair-tuft  was 
visible.     They  rushed  in  and  slew  it.     Their  sister 
returned  home  agfain,  but  was  noticed  to  be  carrying 
a  little  black  worm  in  her  hand.     It  grew  bigger  every 
day,  and  at  last  she  went  off  with  it  and  was  never 
recovered  again. ^    In  the  Guiana  version  already  cited 
the  snake  is  a  divinity,  and  has  sometimes  a  human 
form ;  so  in  the  Zuni  and  New  Guinea  variants  the 
story  has  been  refined.     The  versions  of  this  tale 
would  require  a  volume  to  themselves  ;  we  should  note 
in  connection  with  it  the  many  myths  of  monarchical, 
tribal,  or  racial  descent  from  a  serpent  conceived  of 
as  a  divinity,  as  in  the  Carib  instance.     In  classical 
times  several  clans  and  individuals  were  said  to  be  of 
serpent  descent,  while  one  of  the  ''symbols"  of  the 
mysteries  of  Sabazios  which  entered  Greece  from 
Phrygia  was  a  serpent,  under  which  form  Zeus  had 
an  amour  with  Core,  who  gave  birth  to  Sabazios. 
Naga,  or  serpent  tribes,  are  common  enough  in  India, 
while  the  rulers    of   the  different  races  of  Central 
America  boasted  of  descent  from  a  snake.     The  same 
myth  occurs  in  the  Pacific  Islands,  as,  e.g.,  among  the 
people  of  Hudson's  Island,  who  say  that  earth  as 
a  man  mated  with  a  serpent,  and  their  progeny  formed 
the  first  race  of  men.     In  Japanese  mythology  the 
Sea-deity's  daughter,  mated  to  a  god,  assumes  her 
true  shape  after  giving  birth  to  a  son,  viz.,  that  of  a 
dragon,  while  in  one  folk-tale  a  robber  is  introduced 
whose  mother  had  been  a  serpent.  ^ 

To  return  to  the  Red  Indian  tales,  an  Algonquin 

1  Rink,  p.  1 86. 

2  Clement,  Protrep.,  cap.  2.  Maclennan,  pp.  526-7.  Turner,  p.  288. 
Chamberlain,  Ko-ji-ki^  p.  127  ;  Griffis,  p.  126.  Alexander  and  Augustus 
were  said  to  have  claimed  birth  from  serpents  who  were  deities  in  dis- 
guise. The  mother  of  the  latter  could  never  get  rid  of  the  spots  which 
the  serpent  had  left  on  her  body,  like  the  Kafir  maiden,  see  p.  340. 
Suetonius,  Augustus,  xciv.  Alexander's  mother  was  given  to  the  cult 
of  Sabazios,  and  played  with  serpents  in  the  delirium  of  worship.  In 
this  we  may  perhaps  see  the  germ  of  the  legend. 


CROCODILE  LOVJERS  267 

legend  tells  how  a  maiden  sleeping-  by  the  lake  side 
was  stealthily  approached  by  a  serpent  and  had  no 
power  to  resist  his  embrace,  afterwards  giving  birth 
to  twelve  serpents,  which  were  killed  by  the  father  of 
the  Thunder-god,  who  then  married  her.  So  in  a 
Bengal  story  a  mighty  serpent,  after  slaughtering  a 
whole  family,  takes  off  the  beautiful  daughter  to  his 
watery  tank,  where  of  course  she  is  rescued  by  a 
prince.  In  Russia,  too,  the  serpent  is  entirely  evil, 
and  frequently  carries  off  mortal  maidens,  and  from 
their  union  heroes  or  sometimes  monsters  are  born.^ 

The  Senegambian  crocodile  story  is  paralleled  by 
Basuto,  Malagasy,  and  Dyak  tales.  In  the  Basuto 
tale  the  body  of  a  girl  killed  by  her  mother  is  restored 
by  a  crocodile,  who  takes  her  to  live  with  him  in  the 
lake.  Malagasy  folk-lore  is  full  of  disgusting  stories  of 
amours  carried  on  between  men  and  female  caimans, 
and  between  women  and  male  caimans.  The  female 
saurians  carry  on  their  claws  rings  given  them  by 
their  mortal  lovers.  So,  Herodotus  tells  us,  the 
people  of  Thebes  decorated  their  sacred  crocodiles 
with  earrings  and  bracelets.  The  Dyak  story  relates 
how  a  man  made  friends  with  a  crocodile,  finding  him 
so  agreeable  that  he  gave  him  his  daughter  in 
marriage.  Then  the  crocodile  began  to  devour 
everything,  and  would  do  no  work,  until  the  exasper- 
ated villagers  hacked  him  to  pieces.  That  is  why  no 
self-respecting  crocodile  will  so  much  as  look  at  a 
Dyak  now.^ 

Other  animals  are  equally  fond  of  human  lovers. 
Two  Eskimo  girls  had  respectively  an  eagle  and  a 
whale  for  husbands  by  their  own  desire,  while  on  the 

^  Leland,  A.L.,  p.  266.  Day,  p.  18.  Ralston,  Son^s  of  the 
Russian  People^  p.  173.  These  tales  form  a  link  with  those  of  the 
cycle  in  which  a  maiden  is  sacrificed  to  a  serpent  or  dragon.  See 
chap.  xiv. 

2  Casalis,  p.  360.  Ferrand,  pp.  iv-v,  180.  Herodotus,  ii.  69.  Ling 
Roth,  i.  348. 


268  BEAST-MARRIAGES 

other  side  of  the  world  the  people  of  New  Guinea 
have  a  curious  story  of  a  great  eagle  who  married  a 
woman  and  had  a  son  by  her.  She  returned  to  her 
village  and  was  followed  to  her  father's  house  by  a 
snake,  who  claimed  her.  Eventually  she  escaped,  and 
the  snake  was  slain  by  the  eagle. ^  Among  the 
Negroes  of  the  Fjort  beast-marriage  is  a  common 
incident ;  animals  have  every  human  quality,  and 
frequently  have  human  brides.  In  one  story  the 
leopard  is  married  to  four  princesses.  He  has  a  bet 
with  the  antelope,  which  necessitates  the  latter 
becoming  a  dog,  and  in  this  form  he  is  ill-used  by 
all  his  wives.  The  dog  then  turned  into  a  beautiful 
maiden,  of  whom  the  leopard  became  amorous.  She 
begged  him  to  kill  his  wives ;  he  did  so.  Then  she 
took  out  his  claws,  teeth,  etc.,  and  turned  herself  into 
the  antelope,  when  the  leopard  died  of  chagrin.  An 
elephant,  say  the  Hottentots,  was  married  to  a  woman. 
Her  brothers  came  to  rescue  her  ;  she  hid  them.  Dur- 
ing the  night  she  escaped  with  them,  carrying  off  all 
the  elephant's  possessions.  In  the  morning  he  pursued 
them  ;  they  found  their  way  blocked  by  a  cliff,  which, 
by  the  woman's  magic,  opened  to  let  them  pass  and 
closed  after  them.  The  elephant  repeated  the  same 
charm  and  opened  the  cliff,  but,  alas,  it  closed  upon 
him.  In  a  Red  Indian  story  cited  by  Schoolcraft,  a 
chief  bade  his  lovely  daughter  never  leave  their  lodge. 
She  disobeyed,  and  was  carried  off,  like  Europa,  by 
the  king  of  the  buffaloes,  and  was  only  recovered 
after  great  difficulty  by  her  father  Among  the 
Negroes  of  the  Slave  Coast  a  tortoise  is  said  to 
have  asked  a  girl  in  marriage.  He  was  refused,  but 
succeeded  in  making  the  girl  eat  some  fruit.  This 
placed  her  in  his  power.     In  vain  he  was  offered 

1  Rink,  p.  126.  Romilly,  p.  107.  The  snake  incident  in  this  story 
—the  snake  occupying  the  hut  of  the  woman's  father— aifords  a 
curious  parallel  to  the  similar  incidents  in  the  other  New  Guinea  and 
the  Zuni  tales  cited  above. 


THE  FROG  BRIDEGROOM  269 

equivalent  value  ;  each  time  he  refused  it,  and  at  last 
the  g"irl  had  to  be  given  up  to  him.^ 

This  story,  save  that  the  tortoise  is  a  tortoise  and 
not  an  enchanted  prince,  is  almost  exactly  parallel  to 
a  cycle  of  stories — that  of  the  Frogr  Bridegroom, 
which  has  close  connection  again  with  that  of  Beauty 
and  the  Beast.  It  will  suffice  to  cite  the  Magyar 
version  with  references  to  parallels.  Three  sisters 
went  in  succession  to  draw  water  from  a  well  in  which 
lived  a  huge  frog.  He  would  not  allow  them  to  do 
so  unless  they  gave  him  a  ring.  The  youngest  alone 
consented,  and  obtained  the  water.  At  night  the  frog 
crawled  up  to  the  door  and  called  for  admission. 
When  he  was  brought  in  he  asked  for  food,  wine,  and 
a  bed.  These  were  given  him,  but  still  he  was  not 
satisfied ;  he  must  have  one  of  the  daughters.  The 
two  eldest  were  offered  and  refused ;  Betsie,  the 
youngest,  alone  would  content  him,  and  she  was 
put  in  his  bed  lest  he  should  cast  a  spell  on  the 
house.  Next  morning  the  frog  had  turned  into  a 
handsome  youth,  who  asked  for  Betsie's  hand,  and 
(suspicious  circumstance)  **  they  hastened  to  celebrate 
the  wedding,  so  that  christening  might  not  follow  it 
too  soon."  With  various  settings  this  story  is  told 
in  Germany,  Norway,  England,  the  Scottish  High- 
lands and  Lowlands,  and  India.  Though  the  Negro 
tortoise  tale  proves  that  it  is  a  natural  and  necessary 
growth  out  of  a  primitive  stage  of  thought,  Gubernatis 
and  Max  M tiller  have  attempted  to  explain  it  in  the 
usual  mythological  fashion.^ 

1  Dennet,  p.  71,  ^.  p.  74,  story  of  a  divinity's  daughter  for  whose 
hand  all  the  animals  contest.  Bleek,  p.  61.  Schoolcraft,  ii.  34. 
Mdusine^  ii.  123.  A  story  from  Lorraine  has  some  likeness  to  these 
tales.  A  leopard  carried  off  a  princess.  Nothing  could  kill  him  but 
partridge's  eggs  thrown  at  his  forehead.  These  were  obtained  by  a 
prince,  who  had  determined  to  rescue  her.     Cosquin,  ii.  128. 

2  Jones,  p.  224.  Grimm,  The  Frog  Prime.  Dasent,  p.  23. 
Halliwell,  p.  51.  Campbell,  ii.  141.  Chambers,  p.  46.  Miss  Stokes, 
xvi.     Gubernatis,  Z.J/.,  s.v.  Frog.     Max  Miiller,  Chips^  ii.  249. 


270  BEAST-MARRIAGES 

Another  well-defined  cycle  of  stories  has  a  wide 
distribution :  we  shall  call  it  that  of  the  Bear's  Son. 
Taking"  what  are  clearly  the  later  forms  first,  in  them 
a  bear  steals  a  woman  who  is  about  to  have  a  child. 
He  is  born  in  the  den,  and  partakes  of  the  bear  nature. 
When  he  has  grown  old  enough  and  has  learned  his 
mother's  story,  he  kills  the  bear.  In  this  form  the 
story  is  found  in  Picardy,  Lusatia,  Lorraine,  and 
the  Tyrol.  Similarly  the  Japanese  hero,  Kintaro, 
was  the  son  of  a  woman  who  lived  in  a  mountain 
cave,  on  roots  and  herbs.  Her  son  played  with  wild 
beasts,  but  especially  the  bear,  with  whom  he  used 
to  wrestle,  and  he  eventually  became  a  mighty 
warrior.^  But  another  group,  with  German,  Croatian, 
and  Flemish  variants,  tells  how  a  child  was  stolen  by 
a  bear  and  followed  by  his  mother,  whom  the  bear 
detained  to  assist  in  the  household ;  the  boy  was 
suckled  by  the  bear,  and  hence  obtained  his  bear 
nature.^  The  third  and  most  primitive  group  has  in 
Europe,  Russian,  Swedish,  Serbian,  German,  Italian, 
Spanish,  and  Celtic  variants.^  A  Syriac  version  may 
be  cited.  While  pursuing  an  ox,  a  woman  was 
captured  by  a  bear,  who  carried  her  to  a  cave  and 
there  made  her  his  wife.  Soon  after  she  escaped  and 
returned  home,  where  she  gave  birth  to  a  son,  half- 
bear,  half-man.*  The  Avars  of  the  Caucasus  also 
have  the  story,  and  a  curious  version  is  current  in 
Dardistan.  The  bear  carried  off  a  little  girl,  and  kept 
her  shut  up.  When  she  became  a  woman,  he  fell  in 
love  with  her.  Unfortunately  she  died  in  giving 
birth  to  a  child. ^    A  close  parallel  to  the  European 


^  Me'lusine,  1877,  p.  no,  Haupt  und  Schmaler,  ii.  169.  Cosquin, 
i.  6.     Schneller,  p.  189.     Griffis,  p.  121. 

2  Proehle,  ii.  29.     Archiv.  fur  Slav.  Phil.,  v.  31.     Deulin,  ii.  i. 

2  Gubernatis,  Z.M.,  ii.  117.  Thorpe,  ii.  59.  Vouk,  No.  i. 
Colshorn,  No.  5.     Visentini,  No.  32.     Rondallayre,  ist  ser.  11. 

*  Prym  and  Socin,  ii.  258. 

•'  Schiefner,  No.  2.     Leitner,  iii.  12. 


THE  BEAR'S  SON  271 

versions  is  found  among  the  Micmac  Indians,  but 
though  it  is  thoroughly  Indianised  it  has  no  doubt 
been  obtained  from  French  Canadian  sources.  Zuni 
and  Cree  tales  contain  such  an  incident,  quite  possibly- 
original.  In  the  former  a  bear  steals  a  boy,  but  lets 
him  go  when  he  hears  that  his  mother  is  very  pretty. 
''Come  at  night,"  said  the  boy,  "and  I  will  introduce 
you  to  my  mother"  ;  however,  when  the  bear  arrived 
he  shot  him  dead.  The  Cree  version  tells  how  a  girl, 
lost  in  the  forest,  was  met  by  a  bear  who  offered  her 
the  alternative  of  marriage  or  instant  death.  She 
chose  the  former,  and  became  mother  of  two  bears, 
whom  she  afterwards  changed  into  men.^  What  is  to 
be  noted  is  that  all  these  versions  of  this  incident 
(except  the  Cree  story)  are  introductory  to  the 
adventures  of  the  son,  who  has  the  wisdom  of  man 
and  the  strength  of  a  bear,  and  of  the  companions 
whom  he  afterwards  falls  in  with.^  Such  a  story  as 
that  of  the  Crees,  which  might  have  been  invented  in 
many  places,  has  formed  the  basis  of  the  later  and 
more  complex  tale  that  has  gone  the  round  of  the 
world. 

1  shall  refer  later,  in  dealing  with  "the  Youngest 
Son,"  to  a  group  of  stories  which  introduce  quite 
another  episode  of  beast-marriage.  A  father  bids  his 
sons  give  his  daughters  in  marriage  to  whomsoever 
will  ask  them  first.  These  turn  out  to  be  animals, 
wolf,  vulture,  and  falcon,  or  the  king  of  birds  and  the 
king  of  beasts,  but  in  all  stories  of  the  group  they 
have  a  human  form  as  well.     These  creatures  later 

^  Micmac^  Leland,  A.L.^  p.  311.  Zuni^  Gushing,  p.  92.  Cree^ 
Petitot,  p.  460.  There  were  many  mediaeval  versions  of  this  story  ; 
cf.  Saxo  Grammaticus,  bk.  x.  The  story  of  Valentine  and  Orson 
resembles  the  second  group, 

2  These  adventures  are,  rescue  of  three  princesses,  whom  the 
companions  go  off  with,  abandoning  the  hero  ;  his  rescue  by  friendly 
animals  (p.  352) ;  and  revenge  on  the  companions.  Many  stories  with 
these  adventures  lack  the  bear  incident,  and  the  hero  is  simply  a 
strong  man. 


272  BEAST-MARRIAGES 

help  the  youngest  son  in  his  difficulties.^  But,  in  a 
more  primitive  type,  omitting-  the  youngest  son 
incidents,  the  husbands  are  animals  and  nothing 
more.  Three  girls,  in  a  Norse  tale,  were  bent  on 
getting  married  even  if  they  only  got  a  fox,  a  goat,  or 
a  squirrel  for  husbands.  Thereupon  these  very 
animals  appeared.  The  girl's  father  went  to  visit 
them ;  the  squirrel  dived  into  the  river  and  brought 
up  a  trout.  The  father  imitated  the  squirrel  on  his 
return  home,  but  was  drowned.  An  Eskimo  parallel 
may  have  been  derived  from  this  story.  A  girl 
married  a  huge  man,  and  when  her  father  went  to  see 
her,  the  man  went  outside  the  hut.  Presently,  the 
father  saw  a  cormorant  dive  and  bring  up  a  sea- 
scorpion,  which  the  man  presently  brought  in  (i.e.y  he 
and  the  cormorant  were  one).  Here,  too,  the  father, 
imitating  his  action,  was  drowned.^ 

Thus  all  the  cycles  of  tales  into  which  Beast- 
marriage  enters  have  been  traced  back  to  their 
evidently  primitive  forms,  in  which  the  bridegroom 
(or  bride)  is  an  animal.^  This  is  also  true  of  the 
Swan-maiden  cycle  discussed  so  minutely  by  Mr 
Hartland,  who  cites  several  tales  of  this  primitive 
type,  and  suggests  a  totem  origin  for  the  whole 
group.*  Swan-maiden  and  seal  woman  can  only 
resume  their  animal  form  by  donning  the  feather  or 
fur  dress  which  their  lover  has  got  possession  of. 
But  in  the  earlier  and  more  primitive  versions  the 
woman  is  an  animal  which  has  the  power  of  self- 
transformation. 

Analysing  these  several   story-groups  and  their 

*  There  are  Greek  (Hahn,  No.  25),  Sicilian  (Gonzenbach,  No.  29), 
Tuscan  (Pitre,  No.  11),  Breton  (Sebillot,  No.  16),  Portuguese  (Coelho, 
No.  16),  and  Russian  (Ralston,  p.  85)  variants. 

2  Nansen,  Eskimo  Life^  p.  295.     Rink,  p.  119. 
^  For  another  cycle  in  which  Beast-marriage,  pure  and  simple,  is 
the  earliest  form,  see  p.  233. 

*  Science  of  Fairy  Tales ^  P-  33i' 


ORIGIN  OF  THE  INCIDENT  273 

^spective  types,  we  shall  find  several  definite  stages. 

Cihe  latest  form,  as  in  the  Beauty  and  Beast  and 
Frog"  cycles,  presents  us  with  a  hero  transformed  by 
enchantment  into  a  beast,  and  saved  by  the  devotion 
of  the  human  lover.  The  incident  of  enchantment, 
though  itself  primitive,  has  here  been  made  use  of 
to  give  an  earlier  story  greater  dramatic  interest  at  a 
time  when  beast-marriage,  pure  and  simple,  had 
become  a  revolting  conception.  The  beast-mother 
in  the  Cinderella  tales  is  an  example  of  this.  At  first 
a  beast,  she  becomes  later  a  woman  transformed  by 
sorcery..^  But  ere  this  stage  was  reached  a  large 
body  of  stories  existed,  in  which  the  hero  had  himself 
the  power  of  transformation,  appearing  now  as  an 
animal,  now  as  a  man,  but  invariably  going  a-wooing 
in  animal  form.  Of  these  stories  there  are  several 
distinct  types,  (i)  Those  in  which  the  wooer  is  one 
of  a  class  of  animals  who  are  men  and  women  in 
their  native  element,  as  in  the  Russian  tale  (p.  257),  or 
vice  versa,  as  in  the  Senegambian  story  (p.  260).  Next 
(2)  come  stories  in  which  a  divinity  assumes  animal 
form ;  Zuni,  Guiana,  Hervey  Island,  and  Aino 
instances  have  been  cited,  as  well  as  the  classical 
myths.^  (3)  In  other  cases  it  is  not  said  that  the 
animal  is  a  divinity,  but  he  becomes,  through  union 
with  a  human  lover,  the  ancestor  of  a  tribe,  as  in  the 
Dog-rib  Indian  tale  (p.  262).  At  the  next,  and  in  my 
opinion  the  primitive  stage,  there  is  no  trace  of  trans- 
formation, and  the  lover  is  a  beast  and  nothing  more, 
as  in  the  third  type  of  the  Bear's  Son  cycle,  and  in 
Eskimo,  Red  Indian,  Dyak,  and  New  Guinea 
stories.^ 

It  is  obvious  that  stories  of  beast- marriage  pre- 
suppose that  animistic  stage  of  thought  (already 
referred  to),  through  which  all  races  have  passed,  in 
which  there  is  no  real  distinction  between  human 
and  animal  personality ;  in  which,  in  effect,  animals 
1  See  pp.  258-60.  2  5ee  p  262. 

S 


274  BEAST-MARRIAGES 

are  simply  men  in  fur  and  feather.  This  condition  of 
thought  is  put  tersely  in  a  Micmac  tale,  which  opens 
by  saying :  '*  In  the  beginning  of  things,  men  were 
as  animals  and  animals  as  men.  How  this  was  no 
one  knows.  "^  But  they  owe  their  origin  more 
immediately  to  totemism,  that  primitive  institution 
in  which  an  animal  (or  plant)  is  believed  to  have  been 
the  common  ancestor  of  the  animals  of  that  species, 
and  of  a  clan  or  tribal  sept  of  men  who  call  them- 
selves after  the  animal,  and  never  kill  or  eat  it.^  That 
animal  ancestor  tends  to  become  a  divinity,  or  to  be 
merged  into  a  god,  who  thereafter  bears  some  trace 
of  the  animal  merged  into  him.  We  are  not  con- 
cerned here  with  the  origin  of  totemism,  which  is  still 
to  seek.  But  it  is  clear  that,  once  started,  the  idea 
of  an  animal  ancestor  must  inevitably  have  given 
rise  to  myths  explaining  how  this  could  be.  Such 
myths,  in  effect,  do  exist  wherever  totemism  can  be 
traced.  They  explain  the  descent  of  the  clan  from 
the  animal  by  telling  how  in  the  far-off  past  an 
animal  took  a  human  mate,  and  how  their  offspring 
were  the  fathers  of  the  clan.  Some  of  the  folk-tales 
already  referred  to  have  been  found  to  state  this ; 
they  are  really  as  much  myths  as  they  are  Marc  ken. 
Other  clear  examples  of  such  myths  may  here  be 
given.  The  owl  clan  among  the  Nisqas  of  British 
Columbia  are  descended  from  a  maiden  who  was 
carrried  off  by  an  owl.^  Among  the  Mongols,  with 
whom  totemism  as  an  institution  has  passed  away, 
some  myths  still  exist,  explaining  how  an  animal  came 
to  be  an  ancestor  of  men.  Thus,  after  a  great  war, 
only  one  Mongol  woman  survived.  She  met  a  bull,  who 
begot  of  her  two  daughters,  from  whom  the  present 

1  Leland,  A.L.,  p.  31. 

2  See  Frazer,  Totemism^  and  the  chapter  on  "Animal- worship  and 
Totemism  "  in  my  Religion,  Its  Origin  and  Forms. 

3  See  p.  183,  where  I  have  shown  how  totem  beHefs  may  have 
suggested  beast-marriage. 


TOTEM  MYTHS  275 

race  is  descended.  So  the  Kirghiz  are  descended 
from  a  thief  and  a  pigf :  hence  they  do  not  eat  pig's 
flesh.  Mr  Batchelor  tells  us  that  a  young  Aino 
informed  him  (and  himself  thoroughly  believed)  that 
the  father  of  his  great-great-grandfather  was  either 
brought  up  by  an  eagle  or  born  of  one.  This,  he 
thinks,  is  a  clear  relic  of  clan  totemism.  Similarly, 
the  Bakalai  explain  their  totem  clans  by  saying  that 
once  a  woman  gave  birth  to  a  calf,  another  to  a  boar, 
a  third  to  a  monkey,  and  so  on  :  from  these  they  are 
descended,  just  as  the  snake  clan  of  the  Moquis  claim 
descent  from  a  woman  who  had  snake  children.^ 

With  the  decline  of  totemism  proper,  the  mythic 
animal  ancestor  often  becomes  a  man  or  woman  who 
is  only  at  times  an  animal.  Among  the  Tchippe- 
wayas  it  is  told  how  the  first  man  caught  a  partridge, 
which  changed  into  a  woman,  whom  he  married. 
They  were  the  ancestors  of  the  tribe.  The  Tshi- 
speaking  peoples  of  the  Gold  Coast  have  many 
animal  clans,  most  of  which  explain  their  origin  in 
the  same  way.  Thus  a  man  caught  a  fish  called 
an  appei,  which  begged  him  to  spare  her  and  she 
would  become  his  wife.  He  replaced  the  fish  in  the 
water,  and  on  returning  home  found  there  a  young 
woman,  who  told  him  she  was  the  fish,  and  that  now 
neither  they  nor  any  of  their  descendants  (the  ai?pei 
clan)  must  ever  eat  appeiy  or  they  would  all  go  into 
the  sea.^  This  myth,  so  curiously  like  European 
mermaid  and  seal-wife  tales,  throws  some  light  on 
their  origin.  To  this  we  shall  return  in  a  later 
chapter.      Mythic  explanations  of  such  a  puzzling 

^  F.L.J.y  iv.  21,  25.  Tibetans  have  a  curious  story  about  the 
earliest  inhabitants  of  Tibet  being  descended  from  the  monkey  king 
(an  incarnate  god)  and  a  female  hobgoblin.  The  former  supplied 
all  their  good,  the  latter  all  their  bad  qualities.  Rockhill,  Notes  on 
Eth.  of  Tibet^  p.  677.  Batchelor,  2nd  ed.,  p.  8.  Du  Chaillu, 
Equatorial  Africa^  p.  308.     Bourke,  Snake  Dance  of  Maquis^  p.  177. 

-  Petitot,  p.  347.     Ellis,  Tshi- Speaking  Peoples^  p.  211. 


276  BEAST-MARRIAGES 

institution  as  totemism  are  demanded  by  man's 
speculative  mind,  and  we  see  that,  once  invented, 
they  take  more  and  more  the  folk-tale  form  as  time 
goes  on.  Sometimes,  however,  the  mythic  animal 
descent  is  explained  differently.  Thus  Ellice  Island 
w^as  first  inhabited  by  the  porcupine  fish,  whose 
descendants  were  changed  into  men  and  women.  Or 
sometimes,  conversely,  as  in  a  Samoan  myth,  a 
woman  gives  birth  to  animals  and  men,  who  are 
then  related.^  Again,  when  the  totem-ancestor  is 
worshipped  as  a  divinity,  the  myth  will  make  the 
animal  spouse  a  god,  and  as  it  becomes  a  folk-tale  he 
will  be  described  as  a  god  who  can  assume  either  human 
or  animal  form,  as  in  the  Carib  story.  The  change 
is  sometimes  effected  by  donning  or  dofnng  a  skin 
or  feather  dress,  and,  once  this  is  destroyed,  the 
animal  nature  is  for  ever  gone — an  idea  which 
explains  the  corresponding  incident  in  folk-tales. 

Such  animistic  and  totemistic  beliefs  have  survived 
in  the  East  in  actual  beast  and  tree  marriages  for  a 
symbolical  or  ceremonial  purpose.  Thus,  in  the 
Punjab,  if  a  man  has  lost  several  wives  in  succession, 
he  is  married  to  a  bird  which  he  has  induced  a 
woman  to  adopt  as  her  daughter.  He  then  divorces 
it,  and  marries  the  woman.  Or  a  man  will  marry  a 
tree  in  such  a  case,  before  the  actual  marriage ;  the 
tree  is  then  supposed  to  die  in  place  of  the  woman. 
Other  cases  are  known  with  the  same  purpose  of 
diverting  some  particular  ill-luck  to  the  tree  or  animal 
bride.  Again,  many  tribes  in  India  observe  the 
custom  of  marrying  both  bride  and  bridegroom  to 
trees  as  a  preliminary  ceremony,  perhaps  to  divert 
evil  influences  to  them,  or  possibly  with  a  view  to 
obtaining  fertility  from  the  trees.  ^  Whatever  be  the 
rationale  of  such  rites,  it  is  clear  that  they  never  could 
have  arisen  except  on  the  assumption  that  tree  or 

^  Turner,  pp.  8,  281. 

^  Crooke,  ii.  115  seq,     Crawley,  p.  341. 


REALISM  277 

animal  was  perfectly  akin  to  man,  and  that  actual 
unions  had  once  been  common. 

We  must  not,  however,  overlook  a  more  realistic 
origin  for  such  folk-tales  besides  man's  myth-makingf 
fancy.  In  many  stories  an  animal  forcibly  abducts  a 
woman,  as  in  a  Chinese  tale,  in  which  it  is  related 
that  a  monkey  stole  a  man's  wife,  carrying  her  off  to 
his  den,  where  the  husband  subsequently  overcame 
him.  The  possibility  of  such  an  abduction  is  believed 
in  by  many  African  tribes  and  by  the  Dyaks,  who 
have  stories  of  girls  being  carried  off  by  baboons  and 
orang-outangs,  and  indeed,  the  possibility  of  such  a 
thing,  though  questioned,  has  not  been  refuted.^ 
Again,  the  actual  occurrence  of  unnatural  lusts  among 
races  of  a  low  type  must  be  taken  into  account.^    It 

^  Du  Chaillu,  Equatorial  Africa,  p.  6i.  Reade,  pp.  218,  421.  St 
John,  i.  22.  Cf.  Pausanias,  Attic,  p.  21.  Burton,  Ar.  Nights,  vol.  x., 
thinks  such  cases  proved.  Among  the  Kafirs,  however,  baboons  are 
supposed  to  protect  women  from  lions.  Legend  relates  how  a  woman, 
lost  in  the  forest,  found  herself  surrounded  by  them  when  the  lions 
roared.  They  took  her  to  a  safe  place,  and  fed  her  with  milk  and 
corn.  After  returning  to  her  friends,  she  often  went  to  join  the 
baboons,  whose  language  she  had  learnt.  At  her  death  the  baboons 
howled  and  mourned  many  days.     Rev.  J.  Macdonald,  Folk-lore,  iii. 

355- 

2  Cf.  the  Biblical  references.  Pliny,  H.N.,  viii.  42.  Virgil,  Eclog.^ 
iii.  8.  Mackenzie,  Voyages,  p.  xcvii.  Kraft-Ebing,  Pscyopathie- 
sexualis,  p.  135.  In  connection  with  these  realistic  explanations  the 
stories  of  children  suckled  by  animals,  so  common  in  folk-lore  {cf. 
Knowles,  p.  29  ;  Gushing,  p.  132  ;  Hartland,  i.  48  ;  Schiefner,  No.  12  ; 
Dozon,  p.  loi  ;  Grinnell,  p.  190),  and  of  which  the  classic  example  is 
that  of  Romulus  and  Remus,  are  doubtless  due  to  the  conceptions  of 
animism  and  totemism.  But  in  many  actual  cases,  chiefly  from 
India,  they  have  been  traced  to  the  fact  that  semi-idiot  children, 
brutalised,  and  with  animal  appetites,  are  often  believed  to  have  lived 
among  animals,  or  to  have  been  stolen  by  them.  This  is  a  quite 
natural  deduction  among  people  with  whom  the  distinction  between 
animal  and  human  is  far  from  being  clear.  See  an  interesting  paper 
by  Dr  Tylor  in  Anth.  Rev.,  1863,  i.  21,  "Wild  Men  and  Beast 
Children."  Cf.  Tylor,  P.C.,  i.  282.  Conversely,  in  some  folk-tales, 
women  suckle  animals,  as  is  actually  done  by  Aino  women  (Batchelor, 
p.  484,  2nd  &d..,/.A.I.,  ii.  252),  and  Tasmanian  women  (Roth,  p.  162). 


278  BEAST-MARRIAGES 

is  enoug-h  to  refer  to  these  things  without  discussing- 
them  further. 

The  horror  at  such  unions  which  many  of  our 
folk-tales  reveal — even  those  arising  among  totemic 
peoples,  may  be  explained  from  man's  innate  sense  of 
their  very  strangeness,  even  when  most  claiming 
animal  kinship.  For,  to  return  to  the  Micmac  tale 
already  referred  to,  though  men  were  as  animals  and 
animals  as  men,  '*yet  even  as  men  there  was  always 
something  which  showed  what  they  were,"  a  state- 
ment which  might  be  paralleled  by  those  of  other 
races.  Ideas  which  are  irrational  to  us  were  no 
doubt  quite  rational  to  the  men  among  whom  they 
arose,  else  they  could  never  have  arisen,  yet  even 
then  there  was  clearly  a  sense  in  which  they  were 
regarded  as  irrational.  Granting,  too,  such  realistic 
explanations  as  those  just  referred  to,  the  sense  of 
horror  exhibited  in  the  tales  is  again  made  clear.  It 
was  that  sense  of  horror  which  gradually  evolved  the 
artistic  form  of  the  tales  in  which  the  hero  was  a  man 
with  the  power  of  self-transformation,  or  changed  by 
enchantment  to  an  animal  shape  from  which  the 
magic  power  of  love  set  him  free. 

It  may  also  be  practised  by  Eskimo  wives.  Cf.  stories  in  which  a 
woman  nurses  a  puppy,  or  gives  birth  on  two  occasions  to  twins,  one 
of  which  is  a  bear,  which  she  brings  up  with  the  others. — Rink, 
pp.  -JT,  412. 


CHAPTER  X 

CANNIBALISM  :  ODYSSEUS  AND  THE  CYCLOPS 

No  aspect  of  savage  life  awakes  a  stronger  horror  in 
civilised  man  than  does  cannibalism.  Yet  it  was 
practised  by  our  remote  ancestors,  though  as  various 
lines  of  evidence,  among  others  that  of  folk-tales, 
show,  there  came  a  time  when  they  cast  it  off,  and 
looked  upon  those  more  savage  races  who  still 
practised  it,  with  the  same  horror  as  do  we. 

Cannibalism  occurs  as  a  central  episode  in  several 
folk-tale  cycles,  of  which  there  are  two  main  types, 
the  first  involving-  man-eating  by  ogre,  witch,  or 
demon,  i.e.,  a  being  of  another  race ;  the  second 
describing  it  as  a  perverted  taste  on  the  part  of  some 
members  of  a  race  no  longer  given  to  the  practice. 
In  the  former  type  there  are  several  cycles,  of  which 
the  first  to  be  cited  is  the  well-known  episode  of 
Odysseus'  adventure  with  Polyphemus  —  an  old 
Greek  M'drchen  taken  over  bodily  into  the  epic.^  It 
has  many  parallels ;  the  Basque  version  affords  a 
convenient  example.  The  ogre  is  called  a  Tartaro  ; 
he  is  a  shepherd,  and  also  a  hunter  of  men.  One  day, 
having  caught  a  young  man  in  his  snare,  he  dragged 
him  to  his  den.  The  hero  knew  that  his  custom  was 
to  eat  a  sheep,  take  a  snooze,  and  then  devour  his 

^  In  the  same  way  the  folk-episode  of  a  one-eyed  cannibal  giant 
slain  by  a  hero,  who  blinds  him,  has  been  taken  up  into  the  Celtic 
Fionn  cycle. — J.  G.  Campbell,  The  Fians,  p.  159  seq. 

279 


280     CANNIBALISM :  ODYSSEUS  AND  CYCLOPS 

man.  As  soon  as  the  Tartaro  began  to  snore,  he 
took  a  spit,  heated  it  red-hot,  and  drove  it  into  the 
giant's  one  and  only  eye.  The  Tartaro  let  out  his 
sheep  one  by  one,  thinking  that  the  hero  would  not 
escape  him,  but  he  took  the  precaution  of  putting  the 
ram's  bell  round  his  neck  and  dressing  himself  in  the 
skin  of  the  sheep  just  killed,  walking  on  all  fours  to 
the  door.  There  he  was  met  by  the  ogre's  mother, 
who  gave  him  a  ring,  which  at  once  began  to  cry  out, 
"Thou  hast  me  here."  The  blind  Tartaro  started 
off  in  pursuit,  and  was  just  on  the  point  of  seizing  the 
hero,  when  he  cut  off  his  finger  and  threw  both  it  and 
the  tell-tale  ring  away.^ 

In  a  Sicilian  version  a  monk  is  the  hero  ;  his  com- 
rade is  eaten  by  the  ogre  in  his  cave,  after  which  the 
hero  blinds  the  ogre  and  escapes  in  sheep's  clothing. 
Greek  stories  tell  of  the  Drakos,  a  dull  giant  with  one 
eye,  cannibalistic  tastes,  and  a  penchant  for  pretty 
princesses.  The  hero  of  "  The  Quest  of  the  Golden 
Wand  "  acts  precisely  as  did  Odysseus,  puts  out  the 
Drakos'  eye,  and  escapes  by  hanging  on  to  the  woolly 
ram.  Probably  this  tale  has  existed  unaltered  in 
Greece  from  pre- Homeric  times,  and  represents  the 
traditional  form  of  the  story  incorporated  in  the  epic.^ 
In  German  and  Celtic  variants  the  hero  is  a  robber, 
who  tells  the  story  as  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
things  which  ever  happened  to  him.  Here  the  giant 
has  two  eyes ;  the  robber  pretends  to  heal  one  of 
them,  which  is  sore,  but  covers  the  whole  one  with  stuff 
which  makes  it  as  bad  as  the  other,  and  then  escapes 
like  Odysseus.  The  Polyphemus  incident  also  enters 
into  the  Celtic  Fionn  cycle ;  a  one-eyed  giant,  who 
steals  a  king's  children,  is  killed  by  Fionn  piercing  his 
eye  with  an  arrow.  Such  a  cannibal  giant,  or  (in  one 
episode)  a  smith,  is  the  topic  of  other  incidents  of  the 
cycle.     The  tale  has  thus  been  embodied  here  in  the 

^  Webster,  p.  4. 

2  Crane,  p.  89.     Henderson,  p.  195.     Garnett,  ii.  80. 


A  RED  INDIAN  VERSION  281 

same  way  as  the  story  of  Odysseus  and  the  giant 
was  in  the  Greek  epic.  A  Russian  version  re- 
places the  ogfre  by  a  one-eyed  witch,  who  devours  a 
tailor,  but  has  her  eye  put  out  by  his  friend  the 
smith.^ 

Even  closer  to  the  Greek  version  are  those  found 
among  the  Lapps  and  Kirghiz.  Gastrin  heard  the 
whole  story,  with  local  adaptations,  among  the  Lapps  ; 
while,  with  the  Kirghiz,  the  part  of  Cyclops  is  played 
by  a  giant  called  Alp,  and  that  of  Odysseus  by 
another  giant  called  Batur-Khan.  Sinbad  the  Sailor  s 
adventure  with  the  cannibal  is  of  the  same  type,  and 
has  Indian  and  Persian  parallels,  the  hero  of  a  tale 
in  the  Bahdr-i-Ddnush  escaping  from  a  cannibalistic 
demon  who  lived  on  sheep  and  men,  by  driving  a 
red-hot  spike  through  his  eye.  These  are  literary 
adaptations  of  popular  tales. ^  A  story  identical  with 
the  Homeric  Polyphemus  episode  has  been  heard  in 
East  Africa  from  the  lips  of  a  native  who  had  never 
been  out  of  the  country,  while  a  Red  Indian  version 
introduces  a  serpent  instead  of  an  ogre.  In  this  Red 
Indian  story,  Glooskap,  the  hero  of  many  Passama- 
quoddy  stories,  has  an  enemy — a  man  who  takes 
serpent  form.  H  e  catches  a  servant  of  Glooskap's,  and 
sends  him  to  look  for  a  long  straight  stick  on  which 
to  roast  him.  Glooskap  meets  him,  bids  him  take  a 
crooked  stick,  and  instructs  him  further.  The  boy 
told  the  serpent  that  he  would  straighten  the  stick  by 

1  Grimm,  "The  Robber  and  his  Sons."  Campbell,  i.  112.  The 
talking  ring  occurs  in  both,  and  also  in  the  Russian  tale.  In  the 
German  version  the  ogre  has  two  sore  eyes,  both  destroyed  under 
pretence  of  being  healed.  Cf.  an  Esthonian  tale,  where  the  devil 
is  outwitted  in  the  same  way  by  a  blacksmith  called  Myself,  and  then 
says  "  Myself  did  it,"  and  receives  no  sympathy.  For  the  Fionn 
cycle,  see  Campbell,  The  Fians^  p.  207.     Ralston,  p.  178. 

2  Spencer,  Descriptive  Sociology^  v.  40.  Another  Lapp  variant  is 
given  in  Kirby,  ii.  38.  Scott,  iii.  288.  Webster,  p.  2,  cites  an  English 
story  of  a  giant  who  ground  men's  bones  for  bread,  and  was  blinded 
by  a  lad  kept  as  a  prisoner. 


282       CANNIBALISM :  ODYSSEUS  AND  CYCLOPS 

putting-  it  in  the  fire.  Anxious  to  see  results,  the 
serpent  peered  into  the  flame,  when  the  boy  thrust 
the  red-hot  stick  into  his  eye  and  blinded  him,  after 
which  Glooskap  slew  him.^ 

Finally,  we  may  cite  a  Melanesian  story  which 
bears  much  resemblance  in  some  respects  to  our 
European  tales.  A  man-eater  called  Taso  killed  a 
woman,  but  did  not  eat  her  because  she  was  about  to 
give  birth  to  twins.  These  posthumous  babies  were 
later  discovered  by  their  uncle  Qatu,  and,  after  they 
had  grown  up,  set  out  to  revenge  themselves  on 
Taso.  A  banana-tree  was  to  be  their  life-token. 
They  came  to  Taso's  abode,  and  were  received  by 
his  mother ;  she  went  out  to  call  her  son,  and,  in  her 
absence,  they  made  stones  red-hot  for  his  reception. 
On  his  arrival  in  expectation  of  a  meal,  he  was 
greeted  with  the  stones,  which  felled  him,  and,  as  he 
lay  on  the  ground,  the  twins  clubbed  him  to  death. 
Then  they  despatched  his  mother  also.^ 

The  next  two  cycles  describe  how  a  cannibal 
monster  is  outwitted  (i)  by  being-  thrown  into  his 
own  oven  ;  (2)  by  having  his  own  wife  or  child  served 
up  or  destroyed  by  the  hero.  A  typical  instance  of 
the  former  is  Grimm's  Hansel  and  Grethel.  Sent 
from  home,  they  wander  to  the  house  of  a  repulsive 
witch  in  the  depths  of  the  forest,  who  entices  and  eats 
children.  She  fattens  Hansel  for  her  intended  meal, 
and  every  day  comes  to  see  how  plump  he  is  getting  ; 
poor  Grethel  is  fed  on  scraps.  The  day  comes  when 
he  is  to  be  eaten,  and  Grethel  is  sent  to  make  the 
preparations.  The  witch  tells  her  to  creep  into  the 
oven  and  see  if  it  is  hot  enough.  ''  I  do  not  know  how 
to  do  it ;  how  shall  I  get  in?  "  "You  stupid  goose," 
answers  the  hag,  ''see,  I  could  even  get  in  myself," 

^  Leland,  A.L.^  p.  104. 

2  This  story  is  current  in  Aurora,  a  district  where  the  existence  of 
the  cannibalistic  feasts  of  other  islands  is  doubtful.  Codrington,  pp. 
344,  398. 


A  KAFIR  VERSION  283 

and  pushes  her  head  in.  This  is  the  moment  Grethel 
has  waited  for,  and  gfiving-  the  witch  a  push  she  bolts 
the  oven  door,  and  "  left  the  ungodly  witch  to  burn  in 
the  ashes." 

A  Magyar  variant  is  of  the  Cinderella  type. 
Three  daughters  are  driven  from  home  by  their 
stepmother;  the  two  eldest  treat  the  youngest 
harshly.  In  the  course  of  their  wanderings  they 
come  to  a  palace  where  dwells  a  one-eyed  giantess, 
who  says,  **What  a  fine  roast  you  will  make."  She 
is  propitiated,  and  hides  them,  but  her  husband  dis- 
covers the  girls  on  his  return.  They  are  sent  to  cook 
and  bake  ;  the  youngest  has  the  oven  to  heat.  She 
bids  the  giant  see  if  it  is  hot  enough,  and,  of  course, 
pushes  him  in,  and  he  is  burnt  to  a  cinder.  His  wife 
is  then  knocked  on  the  head,  and  the  girls  take 
possession  of  the  castle.^  Besides  Portuguese,  Lapp, 
Norse,  Indian,  and  Persian  variants,  there  is  a  Kafir 
parallel  to  this  cycle.  In  it  Sikulume  and  his  friends 
fall  into  the  clutches  of  a  cannibal,  who  invites  others 
to  the  meal.  Meanwhile  the  boys  escape,  and  the 
guests  devour  the  cannibal  himself  in  disgust  at 
losing  their  banquet.  Sikulume  determines  to  return 
and  get  a  magic  bird  which  he  has  forgotten.  On 
the  way  an  old  woman  gives  him  some  fat,  which  he 
must  put  on  a  stone  if  the  cannibals  pursue  him.  In 
the  sequel  he  does  so,  and  the  cannibals  fight  for  the 
stone.  One  of  them  swallows  it,  and  he  is  eaten  by 
his  companions,  who  again  give  chase ;  but  the  boys 
are  hid  by  an  old  man  in  a  hut,  which  is  really  a  stone 
transformed  by  him,  and  which  to  the  pursuers  seems 
a  stone  and  nothing  more.^ 

We  come  now  to  stories  in  which  the  ogre's  wife 
or  child  is  served  up  as  a  meal,  or  destroyed  by  the 

^  Jones,  p.  144. 

2  Portuguese  F.T,;  Friis  ;  Dasent ;  Miss  Frere  ;  Payne,  vi.  112  ; 
Theal,  p.  74  seq.  A  Swahili  tale,  cited  on  p.  412  infra^  has  some 
likeness  to  the  Kafir  story. 


284     CANNIBALISM:  ODYSSEUS  AND  CYCLOPS 

cunning-  of  his  original  victim.  The  Celtic  story  of 
Maol  a  Chliobain  may  be  taken  as  typical  of  those  in 
which  both  the  children  and  the  wife  come  to  grief. 
Three  daughters  are  sent  to  seek  their  fortune ;  the 
youngest  is  ill-treated  by  her  sisters.  They  come  to 
a  giant's  house,  and  go  to  bed  with  his  three  daughters. 
During  the  night  the  giant  is  thirsty,  and  bids  his 
ghillie  fetch  him  the  blood  of  one  of  the  girls.  Maol 
hears  all  this,  and  exchanges  the  horse-hair  necklets 
which  she  and  her  sisters  wear  for  the  amber 
ornaments  of  the  giant's  daughters.  The  ghillie  kills 
one ;  the  giant  asks  for  more,  and  still  for  more,  until 
all  three  are  killed.  Maol  and  her  sisters  now  escape, 
and  reach  a  farmer's  house,  where  there  are  three  sons. 
These  will  be  given  in  marriage  to  the  three  girls  if 
Maol  will  bring  the  giant's  treasures.  On  her  third 
visit  to  the  giant's  house  she  was  caught  and  put  in 
a  bag.  By  her  craft  she  induced  the  giant's  mother 
to  take  her  place.  When  the  giant  returned,  he  beat 
the  sack  and  its  contents  till  his  mother  was  killed. 
In  a  Swedish  variant  the  youngest  of  three  sons  has 
to  obtain  the  giant's  treasures.  He  is  caught  and 
fattened ;  the  giant  bids  his  wife  make  ready  the 
oven.  When  she  asks  the  boy  to  go  into  it,  he  falls 
off,  and  begs  her  to  show  him  the  way,  when  he 
pushes  her  in  and  closes  the  door.  An  Italian  version 
is  more  gruesome.  The  hero,  Thirteenth,  having 
roasted  the  ogress,  serves  up  her  limbs  for  the  table, 
but  puts  her  head  and  trunk  in  bed,  attaching  a  string 
to  her  chin  and  hiding  himself  under  the  bed.  The 
ogre  arrives  with  his  guests,  and  asks  her  if  she  will 
dine.  She  shakes  her  head  for  answer.  The  meal 
proceeds,  till  one  of  the  guests  discovers  the  truth  ;  in 
the  subsequent  confusion  Thirteenth  escapes.  In  the 
Basque  story  of  Malbrouk,  the  hero  is  caught  stealing 
the  giant's  violin.  While  the  giant  is  absent  he  offers 
to  help  his  wife  in  chopping  wood,  but  takes  the 
opportunity  of  killing   her  and  boiling  her  in  the 


THE  BABA  YAGA  285 

cauldron  prepared  for  himself,  where  the  giant  finds 
her.^ 

In  Russian  tales  cannibalism  is  usually  prac- 
tised by  a  female  ogre  called  a  Baba  Yaga,  or 
by  a  witch  who  strongly  resembles  her.  A  boy 
having"  been  caught  by  a  witch,  is  shown  by  her 
daughter  how  to  sit  on  the  shovel.  He  at  once 
pushes  her  into  the  oven.  The  witch  is  absent  seek- 
ing guests,  and,  on  her  return  with  her  party,  eats 
her  own  daughter.  The  boy  interrupts  the  feast  by 
telling  her  what  she  has  done,  and  then  escapes  her 
revenge  with  the  help  of  some  friendly  birds.  In  the 
Norse  version,  the  hag's  daughter  does  not  know 
how  to  cook  Buttercup,  the  hero,  and  is  shown  the 
way  by  him  to  her  cost.  He  then  lays  her  head  in 
bed,  makes  broth  with  the  body,  and  kills  the  parents 
while  they  are  at  their  horrible  meal.  Passing  over 
a  Greek  version,  where  the  hero  bakes  the  daughter 
of  a  Lamia,  we  come  to  a  Mongol  story.  Tardanek 
was  caught  by  a  seven-headed  monster,  and  put  in  a 
game-bag.  He  induced  the  monster's  children  to 
take  his  place,  and  they  were  afterwards  cooked  by 
him.  The  same  story  is  also  current  as  far  away  as 
Madagascar.  Takinga  fell  into  the  hands  of  Trimobe 
the  ogre,  and  told  him  that  when  he  was  cooked  his 
body  would  change  into  that  of  two  men.     The  ogre 

1  Campbell,  i.  258.  This  is  the  Scots  story  of  Mally  Whuppie, 
which  is  discussed  on  p.  354.  Thorpe,  Y.T.S.,  p.  137  ;  Crane,  p.  90 ; 
Webster,  p.  86.  A  Japanese  tale  has  a  curious  resemblance  to  these. 
A  badger  is  caught  by  an  old  man  and  tied  to  a  tree,  because  it  eats 
the  food  of  his  pet  hare.  His  wife  is  induced  to  release  it,  is  killed 
by  the  badger,  and  her  body  made  into  broth.  Then  he  assumes  her 
form,  and  the  husband  eats  the  mess,  when  the  badger  reveals  the  truth 
and  flees.  In  the  sequel  he  is  killed  by  the  hare. — Mitford,  i.  255. 
This  crafty  incident  occurs  in  other  connections  in  several  tales.  In 
a  Dyak  story  a  turtle  caught  in  a  trap  induces  a  monkey  to  take  its 
place  by  telling  him  how  delightful  it  is  to  be  thus  tied  up. — Ling 
Roth,  i.  343.  Cf.  a.  Yao  (East  African)  tale,  where  a  boy,  shut  up  by  a 
cannibal  wizard  in  a  bag,  escapes  and  fills  it  with  snakes,  which  sting 
the  wizard  to  death. — Steere,  y.-^./.,  i.  151. 


286    CANNIBALISM:  ODYSSEUS  AND  CYCLOPS 

ordered  his  two  sons  to  put  Takinga  into  boiling 
water ;  Takinga  bade  them  see  first  if  the  water  was 
boiling,  and  while  they  were  peering  into  the  pot, 
tipped  them  into  it.  They  were  boiled  alive,  and  the 
unsuspecting  ogre  ate  them  both.  Later,  he  dis- 
covered Takinga,  but,  in  attempting  to  catch  him, 
was  killed.^ 

The  formula  of  the  series  of  thefts  from  an  ogre, 
occurring  in  the  Gaelic  version,  will  be  met  with 
again  in  some  of  the  versions  of  the  Youngest  Son 
cycle,  as  well  as  in  the  English  story  of  Jack  and  the 
Beanstalk.  An  American- Indian  tale  bears  a  close 
resemblance  to  all  alike,  but,  while  it  has  doubtless 
been  suggested  by  some  of  them,  it  has  become  a 
true  native  folk-tale.  A  little  boy,  in  spite  of  warn- 
ings, is  caught  by  a  witch,  whose  magic  ball,  which 
he  pursues,  leads  him  to  her  hut  in  the  forest.  This 
is  an  incident  which,  in  various  shapes,  is  a  common 
folk-tale  formula.  She  treats  him  kindly,  however, 
and  he  alone  of  all  the  children  she  has  ever  captured 
is  able  to  underg^o  the  ordeal  of  fasting,  by  which  he 
obtains  magic  powers  from  the  spirits.  He  is  now 
sent  to  steal  the  gold  of  the  Bad  One,  and  a  little 
bridge  which,  lengthening  out  to  any  size  when 
desired,  enables  this  ogre  to  cross  the  widest  rivers 
or  seas.  The  witch  gives  him  a  ball,  which,  tied  to 
his  leg,  will  carry  him  through  all  dangers  ;  hence  he 
is  called  Ball-carrier.  Arrived  at  the  Bad  One's 
house,  he  steals  the  treasures,  but  is  pulled  from  his 
hiding-place  by  the  ogre,  who  orders  him  to  be 
fattened  up  for  a  meal.  The  ogre's  servant  prepared 
the  kettle  and  popped  poor  Ball-carrier  into  it,  but  by 
his  magic  power  the  water  only  appeared  to  boil,  and 
he  was  unhurt.  Then,  having  induced  the  woman  to 
come  and  taste  the  broth  in  the  kettle,  he  tipped  it 
over,  and  the  water,  boiling  in  reality,  scalded  her  to 

1  Ralston,  p.  165.    Dasent,  p.  117.    Hahn,  No.  3.    Lang,  Perrault^ 
Ixix.     Ferrand,  p.  69. 


BALL-CAHRIER  287 

death.  Snatching  up  the  treasures,  he  fled.  Mean- 
while, Bad  One  having  returned  to  the  feast  with  a 
crowd  of  water-demons,  found  his  servant  dead,  and 
set  off  in  pursuit  of  the  boy,  whom  he  discovered  on 
the  other  side  of  the  river.  The  ogre  offered  to 
become  his  servant ;  the  boy  agreed,  and  threw  the 
magic  bridge  across  the  water.  But  when  Bad  One 
was  half-way  across,  the  hero  wished  it  to  become 
small,  and  the  ogre,  falling  into  the  water,  was 
drowned.  After  many  subsequent  adventures  of  a 
highly  original  nature.  Ball-carrier  dies,  but  the  witch 
resuscitates  him,  and  buries  the  gold  in  the  earth, 
where  men  who  dig  hard  sometimes  find  it.  Here, 
as  so  often,  the  incident  of  a  folk-tale,  whether 
borrowed  or  original,  becomes  a  mythical  explana- 
tion of  natural  phenomena.^ 

Analogous  to  this  group,  though  the  act  of 
cannibalism  is  unwitting,  is  the  Icelandic  tale  of  the 
prince  who  fell  in  love  with  a  king's  daughter  and 
wished  to  marry  her.  Her  stepmother  was  a  troll 
in  disguise,  and  substituted  her  own  daughter,  who 
became  the  prince's  wife.  When  he  discovered  the 
imposture,  he  killed  her,  salted  her  flesh,  and  sent  it 
as  a  gift  to  her  mother,  who  ate  it  greedily.     There 

1  Bureau  of  Ethnology^  i^th  Annual  Report^  p.  223.  Stealing  of 
children  by  witches  is  not  an  uncommon  incident  in  Red  Indian  tales. 
In  another,  a  witch  steals  lowi's  (the  turtle-dove's)  child,  and  pulling 
his  legs  and  arms  out,  stretches  him  to  a  man's  form,  and  marries  him. 
He  still  retains  a  child's  soul.  After  a  long  time  his  mother,  with  the 
help  of  Kwina  (the  eagle),  discovered  his  whereabouts,  and  though 
the  witch  hid  him  and  herself  in  the  paunch  of  a  mountain-sheep, 
hunger  compelled  her  to  go  and  seek  for  food,  and  in  her  absence 
Kwina  fled  with  him.  The  witch  went  off  to  her  grandfather,  Togoa, 
(the  rattlesnake)  for  help,  but  hearing  Kwina  coming,  she  crept  into 
Togoa's  stomach.  He  turned  very  sick,  and  crept  out  of  his  skin, 
leaving  his  granddaughter  inside.  She  repeated  Togoa's  calls  in 
mockery,  for  he  could  not  find  her.  Hence  all  witches  now  live  in 
snake-skins,  and  delight  in  repeating  the  words  of  all  passers-by. 
Which  is  the  origin  of  the  echo  ! — Bureau  of  Eth.  Report^  i.  45.  See 
a  further  discussion  of  Ball-carrier  on  p.  461  infra. 


288    CANNIBALISM :  ODYSSEUS  AND  CYCLOPS 

are  Sicilian  variants  of  this  tale,  with  the  additional 
horror  of  the  queen's  finding-  her  daughter's  head  at 
the  foot  of  the  barrel  when  her  meal  is  finished. 
Some  ancient  Greek  myths  or  sagas  contain  something- 
very  like  this  incident.  Thyestes,  having  seduced 
his  brother's  wife,  had  two  children  by  her,  whom 
his  brother  served  up  to  him  in  a  ghastly  banquet ; 
while  the  same  punishment  was  meted  out  to  Tereus 
for  having  debauched  his  sister-in-law  Philomela — 
Itys,  his  son  by  Procne,  being  slain  by  the  sisters 
and  eaten  by  his  father.  Thyestes'  father,  Pelops, 
had  himself  been  served  up  by  his  father  to  the  gods, 
but  the  only  one  who  ate  of  him  was  Demeter.  He 
was  restored  to  life,  and  she  gave  him  an  ivory  arm 
in  place  of  the  one  she  had  eaten.  Such  tales  grew 
up  in  a  cannibal  age.-^ 

In  another  series  of  tales  the  cannibal  is  not 
always  an  ogre,  but  an  ordinary  human  being  of 
another  tribe.  Sometimes  the  story  concerns  a  man 
or  woman  who  falls  into  the  hands  of  such  a  tribe ; 
sometimes  he  or  she  is  married  to  a  cannibal.  Both 
types  of  this  series,  however,  have  parallels,  in  which 
the  cannibal  is  a  semi-divine  or  superhuman  being. 

A  Kafir  story  may  be  cited  first.  Two  orphans, 
Demane  and  Demazana,  went  to  live  in  a  cave. 
Demane  warned  his  sister  not  to  roast  meat  in  his 
absence,  lest  the  cannibals  should  smell  it  out.  Dis- 
regarding this  injunction,  Demazana  was  captured 
and  carried  off  by  a  cannibal,  but,  having  dropped 
ashes  as  they  went  along,  gave  a  clue  to  her  brother, 
which  he  followed  up.  Arrived  at  the  cannibal's  hut 
he  asked  for  a  drink,  and  while  the  man-eater  went  to 
get  it  he  took  his  sister  out  of  the  sack  and  filled  it 
with  a  swarm  of  bees.  In  the  sequel  the  cannibal 
was  stung  by  the  bees,  and  having  rushed  out  of  the 

1  Cosquin,  i.  39,  who  also  refers  to  an  Annamite  tale.  Powell  and 
Magnusson,  p.  235.  Cf.  Miss  Cox,  p.  478.  Hyginus,  xlv.,  Ixxxiii. 
Cf.  Cronus  devouring  his  own  children. 


ESKIMO  TALES  289 

hut,  fell  into  a  pond,  where  he  became  a  tree-stump. 
The  orphans  took  possession  of  his  wealth  as  the 
hero  possesses  himself  of  the  ogre's  riches  in  European 
folk-tales.^  Cannibalism  of  a  very  gruesome  type 
occurs  in  Eskimo  tales,  but  is  always  spoken  of  as 
practised  by  strange  tribes  living-  far  from  ordinary 
people,  by  a  hag,  or  by  an  ogre.  Of  several  men 
living  together,  all  disappeared  but  two  brothers. 
One  of  these  arrived  at  a  place  where  many  people 
were  assembled.  They  offered  him  food  in  which  he 
discovered  a  human  hand  ;  he  would  not  touch  it,  and 
was  at  once  attacked,  but  could  not  be  overcome. 
Next  year  his  brother  arrived  with  many  of  his  friends, 
and  destroyed  all  the  cannibals  who  had  been  the 
murderers  of  the  men  who  disappeared.  Giviok,  in 
another  tale,  is  offered  human  fat  by  a  hideous  hag 
and  her  daughter.  He  refuses  it,  and  at  the  same 
time  discovers  many  heads  in  the  hut,  and  presently 
makes  good  his  escape.  A  cannibal  ogre  is  slain  by 
the  hero  of  another  story,  and  eaten  unawares  by  his 
invisible  friends,  who  are  also  destroyed  by  the  hero's 
amulet.  Man-eating  giants,  whose  exploits  are  like 
those  of  the  ogres  of  our  tales,  are  believed  in  by  the 
Karens,  while  a  hairy  giant  with  one  eye  and  cannibal- 
istic tastes  is  known  to  Aino  folk-lore.  He  was  killed 
at  last  by  a  brave  hunter,  who  shot  an  arrow  into  his 
eye — his  one  vital  part — and  afterwards  burned  his 
body.  From  it  canie  all  the  mosquitoes  and  flies  in 
the  country.^  The  Chinese  have  a  story  of  a 
merchant  wrecked  on  a  distant  island,  where  he  was 
discovered  by  hideous  men  who  lived  in  caves,  and 
devoured  raw  human  flesh.  They  were  about  to  eat 
him,  when  he  offered  them  cooked  food  from  his  wallet. 

^  Theal,  p.  iii.     For  a  Basuto  variant,  see  Jacottet,  p.  69. 

2  The  tribes  of  the  north-west  coast  of  America  have  a  tale  like 
this  in  its  ending.  An  ogress  who  ate  children  was  pushed  into  the 
fire  by  some  of  them,  and  her  ashes  turned  into  mosquitoes. — Dorman, 
p.  244.     C/;  p.  25  supra. 

T 


290       CANNIBALISM  :  ODYSSEUS  AND  CYCLOPS 

They  ate  it  with  great  gusto,  and  spared  the  man, 
who  continued  on  the  island  until  his  escape  years 
after.  Among-  the  American- Indians  cannibalism 
is  imputed  to  strange  tribes  or  evil  sorcerers  of  an 
ogreish  aspect,  or  to  demons  of  a  horrible  kind.  In  a 
Six  Nation  legend,  the  Holder  of  the  Heavens 
destroys  a  powerful  tribe  of  giants,  ravenous 
cannibals  who  overran  the  country,  by  leading  them 
into  a  hollow  place,  where  they  were  overwhelmed 
with  rocks.  In  a  Zuni  tale  a  maiden  is  attacked  in 
a  cave  by  a  cannibal  demon,  who  is  slain  by  the 
War-gods.  Such  tales  are  common  among  all  the 
tribes.  So  in  modern  Greek  tales  the  LamicE,  like 
their  classical  prototype,  are  witch-like  hags,  living 
in  desert  places  and  possessed  by  a  strong  liking  for 
human  flesh,  especially  that  of  babies.  The  "devis  " 
of  Georgian  folk-tales  correspond  to  these  LamicE,  and 
form,  perhaps,  a  connecting  link  with  the  Russian 
"  Baba  Yaga "  already  described.  Among  the 
Japanese  there  is  a  strong  belief  in  oni,  horrible 
demons  which  steal  and  eat  men,  or  carry  off  lovely 
girls  to  wait  upon  them.  Tradition  relates  how  the 
hero  Raiko  and  his  band  of  youths  destroyed  them 
after  drugging  their  sakiy  setting  free  the  damsels 
who  were  forced  to  carry  them  their  banquet  of 
human  flesh  and  wine  served  in  human  skulls.  In 
Wales  certain  fairies  are  fond  of  the  flesh  of  infants, 
as  is  shown  by  the  tale  of  Canrig  the  Stumpy,  who 
was  discovered  eating  a  baby  by  a  man  sent  to 
destroy  her.  Possibly  such  fairies  are  the  lineal 
descendants  of  an  earlier  cannibalistic  race.  Return- 
ing to  Greek  folk-lore,  we  find  that  the  lords  of  Hades 
are  believed  to  have  banquets  at  which  the  dead  are 
eaten  ;  while  the  Cretans  have  tales  of  an  underground 
race  of  monstrous  blacks  who  are  man-eaters.  Going 
to  the  other  side  of  the  world,  a  similar  belief  is  found 
among  the  Polynesians,  who  say  that  Miru,  Queen 
of  Hades,  a  hag  with  one  breast,  one  arm,  and  one 


THE  CANNIBAL  WIFE  291 

/ 
leg-,  cooks  and  eats  all  those  who  die  a  natural  death. 

Some  parts  of  Hades  are  also  inhabited  by  man- 
eating-  spirits  who  entrap  mortals,  probably  without 
the  knowledge  of  Miru.  Legend  also  tells  of  a  sky- 
demon,  Amai-te-rangi,  who,  having  taken  a  fancy  to 
human  flesh,  was  overcome  by  the  great  hero, 
Ngaru.^ 

I  turn  now  to  the  next  group,  in  which  a  man  or 
woman  marries  one  of  another  race,  with  cannibal 
tastes.  An  excellent  example  occurs  in  a  Norse  tale. 
A  huntsman  obtained  as  a  wife  one  of  the  Huldre 
folk,  a  supernatural  race  who  sometimes  make  alli- 
ances with  mankind.  One  night  something  of  her 
savage  nature  returned  to  her,  and  she  said  of  their 
child,  "What  a  capital  roast  it  would  make  for 
supper."  In  India,  too,  the  cannibalistic  wife  is 
usually  of  demoniac  nature,  a  man-eating  rakshasi, 
hideous  in  appearance,  and  cruel  by  nature,  but 
capable  of  assuming  the  most  lovely  forms  and 
winning-  ways.  A  poor  Brahman,  wandering-  in 
search  of  food,  arrived  at  a  palace  where  a  beautiful 
woman  welcomed  him  as  her  long--lost  husband. 
The  Brahman  was  amazed,  the  lady  was  clearly 
romancing-;  but  sacrificing  discretion  to  comfort  he 
agreed  with  her.  She  was  a  rakshasi  who  had 
devoured  first  the  king  of  that  region,  then  the  queen, 
the  royal  family,  and  all  their  subjects.  At  the  end 
of  a  week  the  rakshasi  begged  him  to  bring  his 
other  wife.  Rakshasi  and  true  wife  each  bore  him  a 
son,  the  one  called  Sahasra  Dal,  the  other  Champa 
Dal.       The    Brahman    at    length    discovered     the 

1  Rink,  pp.  159,  165,  286  et  passim.  Jour.  As.  Soc.  Bengal^ 
xxxiv.  228.  Batchelor,  p.  73.  Giles,  i.  397.  Leland,  A.L.^  pp.  73, 
104,  288.  Gushing,  p.  297  ;  cf.  Petitot,  p.  211  seq.  Bent,  pp.  98,  388. 
Griffis,  pp.  178,  192.  Wardrop,  p.  56.  Rhys,  ii.  673.  Bent,  p.  213  ; 
F.L.J.,  ii.  237.  Gill,  pp.  154  et  passim,  234  ;  cf.  p.  109,  and  Clarke, 
p.  39,  for  tales  of  the  hero  Tane  or  Maui  and  his  divine  cannibalistic 
grandmother,  Kui  the  Blind. 


292       CANNIBALISM:  ODYSSEUS  AND  CYCLOPS 

rakshasi  eating-  an  antelope  raw,  and  charged  her  with 
her  demoniac  nature.  She  vowed  revenge,  and  next 
day  assuming-  her  true  form,  devoured  him  limb  by 
limb,  and  next  made  a  meal  of  his  wife.  Her  own 
son,  horrified,  cut  off  her  head,  and  he  and  Champa 
Dal  wandered  off  together.  Such  stories  are  common 
all  over  India.  In  Siam  such  a  being  is  called  a 
yak  (ogress).  A  king  with  twelve  wives,  all  sisters, 
married  a  yak,  who  disclosed  her  true  nature  when, 
pretending  to  be  ill,  she  asked  (as  the  one  remedy) 
the  eyes  of  twelve  persons  all  born  of  the  same 
mother.  The  sisters  alone  answered  to  this  descrip- 
tion, and  lost  their  eyes.  A  story  current  among  the 
Khyoungtha,  a  wild  tribe  of  South-East  India, 
suggests  that  such  tales  may  have  been  borrowed 
from  the  aborigines.  A  rakus  (ogre)  having  taken 
the  form  of  a  handsome  man,  won  the  daughter  of  the 
king  of  Arracan.  On  their  way  to  his  home,  he 
devoured  his  guard  of  honour  one  by  one.  His  wife 
discovered  him,  rushed  back  to  camp,  and  prayed 
that  her  lamp  might  open  and  hide  her.  This  it  did 
just  as  the  rakus  came  up  to  devour  his  wife.  He 
threw  the  lamp  into  the  river,  where  a  prince  found 
it,  and,  undeterred  by  thoughts  of  bigamy,  the 
princess  came  out  of  it  and  married  him.^ 

At  a  lower  level  of  civilisation  the  cannibalistic 
spouse  is  an  ordinary  human  being.  The  Kafirs 
have  a  story  of  a  man  who  married  a  woman  of  a 
different  tribe,  who  were  man-eaters.  They  had  two 
children,  whom  their  mother  devoured  when  they 
came  home  from  their  grandfather's  hut,  where  they 
had  been  living.  Of  several  such  tales  current  among 
the  Eskimo,  we  may  cite  the  following.  A  girl 
married  a  man  from  a  distance.  Long  after,  her 
brothers  went  to  visit  her,  and  were  well-treated  by 
her  husband,  who  set  a  tub  of  berries  and  blubber 

^  Thorpe,  ii.  15.  Day,  p.  64  ;  cf.  p.  138  supra,  Asiatic  Researches^ 
XX.  345.     Lewin,  p.  140. 


THE  CANNIBAL  HUSBAND  293 

before  them.  But  suddenly  they  discovered  a  human 
hand  in  it,  and  cried  out  that  they  did  not  eat  such 
food.  They  noticed  their  sister  and  her  children 
eating-  it.  ''Hast  thou  also  turned  cannibal ?"  they 
enquired.  "Yes,  this  nasty  fellow  has  made  me 
one."  In  the  sequel  the  brother-in-law  assisted  them 
to  escape  from  the  cannibal  village.  Another  story 
tells  how  a  cannibal  husband  used  to  fatten  his  wives 
and  eat  them,  but  was  finally  discovered  and  killed 
by  his  last  wife.  Among-  the  Mbamba  of  Angola  it 
is  told  how  a  wife  escaped  from  her  cannibalistic 
husband,  delaying  his  pursuit  by  throwing  down 
millet,  sesamum,  and  eleusine.  He  stopped  to  pick 
them  up,  and  thus  gaining  time  she  reached  her 
father's  house  in  safety.  We  return  to  the  demoniac 
husband  in  a  Malagasy  story.  Two  sisters  were 
married  to  Tsangarira,  one  of  a  class  of  monsters 
who  fatten  their  wives  and  then  devour  them.  His 
true  nature  was  revealed  by  their  slave,  and  they  fled. 
Tsangarira  pursued,  but  was  delayed  by  the  slave 
playing  a  tambourine,  which  forced  him  to  dance. 
Later  he  was  burned  alive  by  his  wives.^ 

Such  stories  as  these  may  have  suggested  some 
versions  of  the  Bluebeard  cycle,  as  in  the  Greek 
variant,  where  the  wife  opening  the  forbidden  chamber 
sees  her  husband,  as  an  ogre,  devouring  a  corpse. 
She  herself  would  have  been  killed  and  eaten  had  she 
not  fled.^  Other  Bluebeard  stories  also  suggest  the 
cannibalistic  husband,  who  kills  his  wife  because  she 
will  not  eat  the  heart  of  his  former  wife.^ 

The  second  type  of  cannibalistic  tales  contains 
many  examples  of  a  perverted  taste  on  the  part  ol 

1  Theal,  p.  128 ;  Rink,  pp.  106,  128  ;  Chatelain,  p.  99 ;  Ferrand, 
p.  119. 

2  Legrand,  p.  115. 

•^  Garnett,  ii.  99.  Cf.  a  Basque  story,  in  which  Bluebeard  punishes 
his  wife  by  shutting  her  in  a  dungeon  and  feeding  her  with  human 
flesh. — Webster,  p.  173. 


294      CANNIBALISM:  ODYSSiEUS  AND  CYCLOIDS 

members  of  a  race  who  have  abandoned  the  practice. 
There  are  two  well-marked  story  cycles  which  exhibit 
this  reversion  to  the  tastes  of  the  stone  ag'e.  Of  the 
first  of  these  a  Russian  story  may  be  cited  as  typical. 
A  g-irl  born  of  ordinary  parents  becomes  very  strong-, 
and  begins  to  eat  everything.  Ivan,  her  brother, 
leaves  home  and  lives  with  the  Sun's  sister,  but  after 
some  time  returns,  and  finds  that  his  sister  has 
devoured  everyone.  She,  however,  disarms  his  fears 
and  goes  to  get  him  food.  A  mouse  warns  him  that 
she  is  sharpening  her  teeth  in  order  to  make  a  meal 
of  him.  Ivan  takes  flight,  pursued  by  his  sister,  but 
in  the  sequel  he  is  saved  from  her  clutches.  Such  a 
cannibalistic  girl  is  a  recognised  type  of  witch  in 
Russian  folk-belief  In  the  Serbian  variant  the  girl 
gets  iron  teeth  from  a  mouse,  kills  her  mother,  and 
prepares  to  eat  her,  when  she  is  killed  by  the  dog  of 
her  youngest  brother.  A  similar  witch  is  believed  in 
by  the  Tuscans.  When  young  she  was  very  good,  but 
gradually  her  conduct  roused  suspicion,  and  the 
daughter  of  the  house  in  which  she  lived  watched 
her.  She  was  found  plotting  with  a  man  to  bewitch 
this  maiden,  and  on  hearing  this  the  latter  screamed. 
That  instant  the  man  changed  to  a  black  dog,  and 
carried  off  the  witch,  who  is  now  known  as  Bergoia, 
the  spirit  of  thunder  and  lightning.  The  "  strigla  "  of 
Greek  folk-lore  is  of  the  same  type,  and  in  a  Syriote 
story  appears  as  a  princess,  who  devours  her  father 
and  ail  his  subjects,  but  is  eventually  destroyed  by 
her  brother,  aided  by  a  mouse,  as  in  the  Russian 
story. ^  The  trolls  of  Icelandic  folk-lore  are  frequently 
cannibals :  one  troll  story  has  afiinities,  however, 
with  those  just  cited.  A  troll  of  mild  temper  has  a 
daughter  of  such  curious  appetites  that  her  mother 
has  to  provide  human  flesh  for  her  every  Christmas, 

1  The  Lamise  of  ancient  and  modem  Greek  folk-lore  were  fond  of 
eating  children.  Their  prototype,  Lamia,  became  a  child-eating 
monster  as  a  result  of  Here's  jealousy. 


THE  UNNATURAL  MOTHER  296 

and  steals  human  beingfs  for  that  purpose ;  while,  in 
another  tale,  a  farmer's  daughter  becomes  a  cannibal 
troll,  eating-  up  all  the  people  of  the  district  till  she 
is  destroyed  by  a  brave  young  man.  Outside 
European  folk-lore  a  similar  belief  is  entertained  in 
Ceylon,  where  certain  demons  are  born  of  human 
parents,  whom  they  leave  shortly  after  birth,  first 
trying  to  work  their  demoniac  powers  on  them. 
From  Samoa  comes  a  story  of  a  kings  wife  who 
became  wild  ;  horns  grew  from  her  head,  and  she  ate 
up  all  her  husband's  subjects.  Trying  to  get  hold  of 
her  son,  she  jumped  into  the  water,  and,  as  a  result 
of  the  immersion,  her  horns  broke  off  and  her  per- 
verted tastes  left  her.  She  is  now  the  evening  star. 
In  some  Eskimo  tales  we  have  a  woman  giving  birth 
to  a  monster  which  puts  to  death  all  in  the  house, 
save  a  boy  and  girl  who  run  away.  The  monster 
is  usually,  however,  the  revenger  of  some  act  of 
cruelty.  We  may  add  here,  for  the  sake  of  compari- 
son, an  ancient  Greek  story,  preserved  by  Athenseus, 
of  Cambleta,  King  of  the  Lydians,  who  was  a  great 
glutton,  and  who  one  night  cut  his  wife  to  pieces  and 
ate  her.  Next  morning  he  found  her  hand  in  his 
mouth,  and  at  once  killed  himself^ 

The  second  cycle  is  that  of  the  unnatural  mother, 
who  kills  her  child  and  sends  it  cooked  for  her 
husband's  dinner.  We  cite  the  Magyar  version.  A 
poor  man  had  a  wife  and  two  children.  While  he 
was  ploughing,  his  wife  killed  one  of  them,  stewed 
him  in  cabbage,  and  sent  the  mess  to  her  husband 
by  her   little    girl.      The   husband   found  the  dish 

^  Ralston,  p.  170.  Mijatovich,  p.  255.  Leland,  E.R.R.,  p.  113. 
Hahn,  ii.  283,  cf.  F.L.J.^  ii.  239.  Journal  Royal  Asiatic  Soc.^ 
Ceylon  Branch,  1865-66,  p.  17.  Turner,  p.  260.  Rink,  p.  258. 
Athenasus,  lib.  x.  cap.  iii.  In  many  tales  of  Slavonic  origin,  Russian, 
Greek,  Albanian,  Bulgarian,  Magyar,  etc.,  the  Sun  is  a  cannibal.  Cf. 
Dozon,  p.  xxiii.  ;  Jones,  p.  96.  Hahn,  No.  10.  Bent,  p.  57,  cites  a 
story  in  which  he  eats  his  relations  if  his  food  is  not  ready  in  the 
evening. 


296      CANNIBALISM :  ODYSSEUS  AND  CYCLOPS 

agreeable,  but  the  girl  suspected  what  it  was,  and  hid 
the  bones  in  a  tree.  They  turned  into  a  bird,  which 
sang — 

"  My  mother  killed  me, 
My  father  ate  me, 
My  sister  gathered  up  my  bones. 
She  wrapped  them  in  clean  white  linen, 
She  placed  them  in  a  hollow  tree. 
And  now,  behold,  I'm  a  young  crow." 

As  a  reward  for  singing  this  song,  "various  people 
gave  the  bird  a  cloak,  a  stick,  and  a  millstone.  With 
these  he  flew  home  and  sang  his  song  there.  The 
mother  was  terrified,  and  sent  the  girl  to  drive  the 
bird  away.  To  her  he  gave  the  cloak.  Next  the 
father  went  out,  and  was  given  the  stick,  which  just 
suited  him,  as  he  was  getting  old.  Lastly  the  woman 
went  out,  and  the  millstone  came  crashing  down  on 
her  head,  killing  her  on  the  spot  as  a  reward  for  her 
evil  deeds.  ^ 

This  is,  of  course,  Grimm's  story  of  the  Juniper- 
tree,  made  famous  by  Goethe's  placing  the  words  of 
the  bird's  song  in  Margaret  s  mouth.  In  this,  as  in 
most  other  versions,  the  woman's  vile  act  is  explained 
by  the  fact  of  her  being  the  boy's  stepmother,  jealous 
of  his  extraordinary  beauty,  which  her  daughter  does 
not  share.  The  story  had  great  popularity,  and  there 
are  Scots,  English,  Swedish,  and  Breton  versions, 
while  a  Malagasy  tale  has  a  curious  resemblance  to 
it.  A  father  kills  his  daughter  and  cooks  her  body, 
telling  his  wife  it  is  lamb's  flesh,  and  bidding  her  ask 
guests  to  the  feast.  She  knows  that  it  is  her  child, 
and  preserves  the  bones  which  grow  once  more  into 
the  girl.  Then  she  kills  her  husband,  and  sends  his 
flesh  cooked  to  his  relations,  who  eat  it  unconsciously.^ 
Cannibalism  is   not  attributed  to  the  murderer  in 

^  Jones,  p.  298. 

2  Douglas,  p.  5.     Henderson,  p.  314.     Hofberg,   Svenska  Folk- 
sdgnen.     Sebillot,  p.  223.     F.L.J.^  i.  273. 


PERVERTED  TASTE  297 

these  stories,  but  the  ghastly  meal  prepared  for  the 
unconscious  parent  proves  that  she  is  at  least  not 
far  removed  from  the  anthropophagous  stage.  In 
the  chapter  on  Helpful  Animals  reference  has  already 
been  made  to  certain  versions  of  the  Cinderella  story, 
where  the  mother  of  the  girl  is  changed  to  a  beast, 
slain,  and  eaten.  But  in  some  Greek  as  well  as 
Dalmatian  versions  of  the  story,  which  are  unique, 
the  two  jealous  sisters  kill  their  mother  and  eat  her, 
the  youngest  refusing  to  share  in  the  meal,  but 
collecting  the  bones  (as  advised  beforehand),  which 
turn  into  gold  and  jewels.^  The  cannibalism  of  the 
daughters  is  of  a  repulsive  type,  but  it  is  difficult  to 
say  whether  it  is  natural  to  them,  or  an  example  of  a 
perverted  taste,  suddenly  acquired  through  their 
jealous  passions,  and,  therefore,  analogous  to  the 
incident  of  the  Juniper-tree  cycle  of  tales. 

The  same  incident  of  cannibalism  as  a  perverted 
taste  occurs  sporadically  in  folk- tales  from  all  parts  of 
the  world.  In  a  Red  Indian  tale  a  woman  eats  the 
corpses  of  the  slain,  and  is  never  hungry  again 
because  she  has  eaten  too  much  human  flesh ;  Raja 
Siung,  in  a  Malay  story,  has  a  boy  slain  daily  for 
dinner,  because  he  had  been  given  the  heart  of  a  boy 
to  eat  by  a  wicked  servant,  and  found  it  so  good  that 
he  could  not  refrain  his  desires  ;  while  in  Mongol  and 
Aino  tales  a  jealous  second  wife  demands  the  heart 
of  the  first  wife's  child  as  the  only  remedy  for  her 
pretended  illness.^  Most  curious  of  all  in  this 
connection  are  certain  tales  of  the  Australians, 
themselves  a  cannibal  people,  in  which  aggravated 
cannibalism  on  the  part  of  certain  persons  is  put 
down  to  perverted  taste.     Thus  Mullyan,  the  eagle- 

1  Garnett,  ii.  112  ;  Miss  Cox,  p.  416.  In  a  Portuguese  Cinderella 
story  the  starving  sisters  eat  each  other. — Coelho,  p.  75. 

2  Petitot,  p.  160.  Skeat,  p.  59,  Miss  Busk,  p.  71.  Chamberlain, 
p.  48.  Cf.  the  Indian  rakshasi  tales  already  cited,  where  the  demon 
demands  the  eye  of  each  queen. 


298       CANNIBALISM :  ODYSSEUS  AND  CYCLOPS 

hawk,  lives  apart  from  the  other  blacks,  because  he 
is  a  cannibal,  and  eats  them,  until  the  friends  of  his 
victims  put  him  to  death.  A  similar  story  is  told  of 
an  old  woman,  Bougoodoogahdah,  whose  infantile 
name  is  not  in  keeping-  with  her  character ;  and  of 
Pig-giebillah,  the  porcupine,  who,  when  he  got  old, 
loved  the  flesh  of  men,  and  enticed  young  blacks  to 
his  camp,  where  he  killed  and  ate  them,  until  the 
blacks  put  him  to  death.  ^ 

Lastly,  there  are  tales  in  which  cannibalism  is 
resorted  to  for  want  of  food.  The  Greek  islet  of 
Phlebas  is  haunted  by  the  ghosts  of  seamen  who 
had  there  lived  on  each  other  till  only  their  captain 
remained.  Seven  queens  in  an  Indian  tale,  driven 
out  by  the  rakshasi  wife,  live  on  the  children  whom 
six  of  them  give  birth  to,  like  the  women  who 
appealed  to  Solomon.  In  a  Kafir  story  a  woman, 
in  time  of  famine,  becomes  a  cannibal  and  eats  all 
the  people  of  the  village  in  which  she  has  taken  refuge ; 
while  the  chief  of  a  Fjort  story,  asked  by  his  starving 
people  to  provide  them  with  food,  gives  them  his  own 
son  to  eat.  They  refuse  it,  because  he  was  "one 
of  our  family,"  but  send  the  meat  to  the  chiefs  of 
neighbouring  tribes.^ 

The  incidents  of  cannibalism  in  folk-tales  are 
reflections  of  a  custom  which  it  is  most  likely  all 
races  practised  at  some  stage  of  their  history,  ^f  all 
the  reasons  which  have  been  assigned  for  the  origin 
of  the  practice,  famine  is  the  most  probable.  Men 
were  driven  to  eat  each  other  out  of  necessity.  ;  The 
custom  once  begun,  many  races  found  it  difficult  to 
give  it  up,  even  when  food  was  plentiful  and  easily 

1  Mrs  Parker,  ist  ser.,  pp.  62,  90 ;  2nd  sen,  p.  39  ;  cf.  p.  15. 

'•^  F.L.J.^  iv.  251.  Day,  p.  118.  Theal,  p.  115.  Dennett,  p.  12. 
The  heroes  of  Scots  ballad  and  tradition,  Lord  Soulis  and  Melville 
of  Glenbervie,  are  said  to  have  been  sodden  and  eaten  by  those  who 
rushed  off,  like  Becket's  murderers,  to  fulfil  the  king's  outspoken  wish. 
— See  Scott's  Minstrelsy^  p.  462. 


ENDOPHAGY  299 

obtained.  On  the  other  hand,  It  continued  as  an 
occasional  custom  for  other  reasons.  It  was  believed 
that  by  eating  any  part  of  a  man,  the  qualities  of 
that  man  would  pass  over  to  the  eater.  This  practice 
is  also  connected  with  that  of  ritual  cannibalism. 
For  the  same  reason  cannibalism  occurs  with  a 
medical  aspect  down  to  very  late  times,  part  of  the 
body  being-  eaten  as  possessed  of  curative  virtues. 
Again,  cannibalism  survives  with  a  legal  aspect ;  the 
criminal  being  eaten  by  way  of  Indignity  or  revenge, 
v/hlle  the  dead  enemy  was  frequently  treated  in  the 
same  way.  It  Is  found,  too,  that  some  tribes  practise 
cannibalism  occasionally  (i)  as  a  filial  act  —  the 
family  eating  the  dead  father,  or  (2)  In  order  to  keep 
down  the  population.  This  is  endophagy,  as  opposed 
to  exophagy  —  the  commoner  form ;  for  while  all 
cannibalistic  races  have  no  scruples  about  eating 
men  outside  the  kin,  most  of  them  have  strong 
objections  to  eating  those  of  their  own  kin,  on  the 
same  principle  by  which  the  totem  animal  is  not 
eaten  by  the  men  of  its  clan.  The  evidence  for 
earlier  cannibalism  among  races  which  abhor  It 
occurs  In  legends  pointing  to  the  practice,  or  to 
myths  of  culture-heroes  who  taught  the  people  to 
give  it  up.^  Many  races  at  a  low  level  of  civilisation 
have  been  known  to  give  up  cannibalism  of  their  own 
accord. 

The  circumstances  of  the  cannibalistic  Incident  in 
folk-tales  require  explanation.  Taking  the  first  type 
of  cannibalistic  episodes,  we  find  that  man-eating  is 
practised  by  an  ogre,  demon,  or  witch  (the  cycles 
of  the  Cyclops  and  of  the  ogre  outwitted  by  being 
killed  or  made  to  eat  some  of  his  own  family),  or 
by  members  of  another  race  who  are  feared,  and  who 
entrap  unwary  members  of  non-cannibalistic  tribes, 
or,    in    some    cases,    marry    them.      Usually    these 

^  The  Ainos  were  so  taught  by  the  divine  Aioina  (Batchelor,  p.  2), 
the  Egyptians  by  Osiris  (Diodorus,  i.  14). 


300      CANNIBALISM :  ODYSSEUS  AND  CYCLOPS 

members  of  a  hostile  race  have  human  traits,  but 
sometimes  they  are  more  or  less  superhuman. 

Generally  speaking,  the  races  which  abandon 
cannibalism  will  be  of  a  higher  type,  and  they  will 
begin  to  look  with  horror  on  races  who  still  practise 
it  and  with  whom  they  are  in  contact.  When 
cannibalism  was  beginning  to  die  out  in  the 
Marquesas  Islands,  one  tribe  reproached  another 
with  :;still  keeping  up  the  practice.^  The  feeling  of 
horror  would  grow  as  time  went  on,  and  the  cannibal- 
istic race  would  gradually  assume  more  barbarous  and 
less  human  traits.  Actual  examples  of  this  occur  in 
plenty.  Thus  the  people  of  Savage  Island  dread 
the  Tongans  traditionally  as  "man-eaters";  the 
Quissama  tribe  are  dreaded  by  the  other  tribes  in 
Angola  for  the  same  reason ;  the  Eskimo  always 
refer  cannibalism  to  another  race,  viz.,  the  Red 
Indians,  whom  they  call  Irtkily,  cannibals  with  dogs' 
heads ;  the  Dayaks  of  Jangkang  are  universally 
accused  of  cannibalism  by  their  neighbours ;  one 
Indian  tribe  in  Guiana  is  looked  upon  with  traditional 
dread  by  the  others  for  the  same  reason ;  the 
cannibalistic  negroes  of  the  Gold  Coast  are  execrated 
by  the  men  of  Old  Calabar,  who  have  given  up  the 
practice ;  the  Moors  in  Senegal  believe  that  white 
men  live  on  human  flesh ;  and  gipsies  have  been 
accused  by  Europeans  of  the  same  practice.^  The 
last  two  instances  prove  that  the  accusation  is  not 
always  a  true  one,  but  help  to  show  that  a  strange 
race  is  regarded  with  suspicion,  and  easily  charged 
with  what  is  thought  to  be  a  most  horrible  crime. 
Thus  the  words  Hun  and  Hungar  became  synony- 
mous with  ogre  in   Europe.     Ogre  itself  is  derived 

^  Letourneau,  Sociology,  p.  211. 

2  Turner,  p.  305.  J.  A  J.,  i.  187  ;  cf.  the  Angola  story  cited  above. 
Letourneau,  p.  214  ;  Rink,  p.  45.  St  John,  i.  123  ;  cf.  Ling  Roth, 
ii.  217.  Im  Thurn,  p.  420.  Anth.  Rev.,  i.  48.  Reade,  p.  446. 
Groome,  In  Gypsy  Tents,  p.  243. 


CANNIBALISTIC  SLANDERS  301 

from  Tartar  invaders  called  *'Oigour,"  or  from 
*'Ugri";  the  Basque  Tartaro  is  a  Tartar;  the  og-re 
of  French  tales  is  sometimes  called  *'  Le  Sarrasin  "  ; 
the  rakshasi  of  Eastern  tales  is  a  ''rakus,"  raw-eater, 
and  may  be  simply  the  cannibalistic  aborigine  trans- 
formed to  a  demon. ^  Races  who  ate  their  meat  raw 
were  regarded  with  horror  by  those  who  cooked  their 
food,  and  were  easily  charged  with  cannibalism — a 
charge  frequently  brought  by  the  Greeks  against 
barbarians  like  the  Germans — forgetting  that  their 
god  Dionysus  was  himself  called  the  *' raw-eater" — 
and  by  the  Vedic  Hindus  against  the  "goat-nosed" 
Turanians.  Imaginative  writers  of  classical  times, 
rightly  or  wrongly,  peopled  unknown  lands  freely 
with 

"  Cannibals  that  each  other  eat, 
The  Anthropophagi,  and  men  whose  heads 
Do  grow  beneath  their  shoulders." 

Among  the  Zulus  the  word  Amazimu  is  synonymous 
with  ogre ;  historically,  the  Amazimu  were  a  tribe 
who  adopted  cannibalism  and  fled  to  the  mountains, 
where  they  were  exterminated.  So  the  Weendijoes, 
or  men  returned  to  cannibalism,  are  feared  in  the 
Labrador  and  Ojibway  districts.^  Too  often,  without 
any  basis  in  fact,  cannibalism  has  been  a  charge 
easily  brought  against  any  body  of  men  by  their 
enemies.  First  the  Jews,  then  the  primitive  Christians, 
were  accused  of  it  by  the  pagans  ;  the  Templars,  at  the 
time  of  their  overthrow,  were  charged  with  it ;  and  it 
has  from  mediaeval  times  onward  been   repeatedly 

1  The  Hungars  of  early  mediaeval  times  were  reputed  to  drink  the 
blood  of  their  captives ;  so  that  in  legend  "  hungar,"  corrupted  to 
"ongar,"  signified  a  man-  or  child-eater. 

2  Casalis,  The  Basutos.     Hind,  Explorations  in  Labrador^  i.  59. 
/M.  Jacottet  (p.  246)  says  that  the  Basuto  call  all  Kafir  and  Zulu  tribes 

Ma-Tebele.      One  such  tribe,  whose  chief  steals  a  young  girl,   is 
described  as  having  only  one  leg,  one  arm,  one  eye,  and  one  ear.    ^ 
See  infra^  p.  302. 


302       CANNIBALISM :  ODYSSEUS  AND  CYCLOPS 

asserted  popularly  of  the  Jews.  One  of  the  commonest 
accusations  against  the  persecuted  Jews  in  Russia  is 
that  of  ritual  cannibalism. 

It  is  in  such  a  condition  that  our  cannibalistic 
folk-tales  must  have  arisen.  The  cannibal  ogfres, 
Cyclops,  giants,  and  rakshasis  are  personifications  of 
the  cannibal  races  of  a  lower  civilisation,  with  features 
and  traits  exaggerated  by  horror  and  fear.  The 
horror  arose  less  from  the  fact  of  cannibalism  than 
from  the  fact  that  the  victims  were  stolen  by  men  of 
another  tribe  or  race.  Women  and  children  were 
frequently  carried  off;  actual  escapes  of  the  kind 
described  in  the  tales  may  occasionally  have  occurred  ; 
while  the  cannibal  captor  may  have  been  overcome 
or  outwitted  in  the  same  way  as,  with  a  sense  of 
justice,  the  stories  relate.  Indeed,  few  incidents  of 
folk- tales  have  greater  vraisemb lance  than  these 
cannibalistic  episodes.  Again,  the  stupidity  and 
dullness  of  the  ogre — invariable  traits  wherever  he  is 
met  with — are  precisely  the  characteristics  ascribed 
to  aboriginal  races  by  their  conquerors  —  men  of 
brains  and  quicker  wits  but  less  bodily  strength. 
The  exaggerated  traits  are  the  additions  made  by  the 
imagination  as  centuries  rolled  on  and  cannibalism 
became  a  thing  of  the  past ;  actual  human  cannibals 
without  exaggerated  characteristics  occur  only  in  the 
folk-tales  of  lower  tribes  still  exposed  to  the  attacks 
of  actual  cannibal  neighbours,  as  in  the  tale  from 
Aurora,  a  probably  non-cannibalistic  region  sur- 
rounded by  a  cannibal  zone.  In  some  cases  we  can 
almost  see  the  process  of  exaggeration  at  work.  In 
the  Kafir  tales  cited  the  cannibals  are  ordinary  men 
of  another  race,  but  occasionally  they  are  described 
as  having  one  leg  longer  than  the  other,  while  the 
shell  and  human-bone  mounds  of  Guiana  are  ascribed 
by  the  modern  population  to  a  savage  race,  "of 
habits  vile  and  low,"  who  ate  men.^     Little  is  here 

*  Theal,  p.  120 ;  Brett,  p.  34. 


THE  CANNIBAL  WITCH  303 

needed  to  convert  these  races  into  ogres  and 
monsters. 

A  cannibal  witch  figures  in  many  of  the  European 
cannibal  episodes.  Such  stories  suggest  a  different 
origin  than  those  of  ogres.  They  are  in  effect  the 
dim  memories  of  a  time  when  ritual  cannibalism  was 
practised  in  Europe  by  the  priestesses  of  the  Earth- 
goddess,  memories  which  also  survived  in  the  mediaeval 
and  later  witch-trials,  when  spurious  confessions  of 
cannibalism  were  extorted  from  the  witches — lineal 
descendants  of  pagan  priestesses  in  an  age  when 
woman  had  a  high  place  in  the  civilisation  of  the 
time.  Human  sacrifice  and  ritual  cannibalism  were 
then  legal,  and  the  priestess  was  held  in  high  honour. 
With* the  introduction  of  Christianity  the  priestess 
became  a  witch,  accused  of  stealing  children  in  order 
to  eat  them  in  a  ghastly  meal.^  A  similar  degrada- 
tion sometimes  happened  even  in  the  case  of  the 
goddess  herself,  the  divinity  becoming  a  demon. 
The  Baba  Yaga  of  Russian  folk-lore  is  a  distorted 
survival  of  the  South  German  goddess  Berctha,  who 
is  also  conceived  of  as  a  fearful  witch  in  her  own 
country.  She  steals  her  victims,  cooks  and  eats 
them,  and  in  general  is  but  little  different  from  the 
ordinary  witch  of  other  parts  of  Europe.^ 

On  the  other  hand,  stories  of  cannibalistic  demons 
may  have  arisen  through  the  horror  at  human  sacrifices 
to  gods  which  resulted  from  the  rise  of  Christianity, 
Buddhism,  etc.,  with  their  purer  worship.  The  gods 
were  believed  to  eat  the  sacrifice.     With  the  advent 

1  Pearson,  ii.  21  seq.  In  most  lands  where  cannibalism  is 
commonly  practised,  the  priest,  medicine-man,  or  chief,  receives  the 
best  portions.  This  explains  some  aspects  of  ritual  cannibalism, 
where  the  priest  eats  part  of  the  human  sacrifice.  A  once  common  act 
of  cannibalism  is  now  restricted  to  the  priest,  whose  right  to  the  best 
portion  is  thus  continued.  Cf.  some  Red  Indian  tales,  where 
cannibalism  is  attributed  to  medicine-men  after  the  people  them- 
selves have  given  it  up. — Leland,  A.L.^  pp.  41,  288. 

-  Ralston,  Songs  of  the  Russian  People^  p.  161. 


304       CANNIBALISM :  ODYSSEUS  AND  CYCLOPS 

of  the  higher  religfion  they  became  demons  who  would 
only  be  satisfied  with  human  flesh.  The  natural 
evolution  of  any  one  religion  would  also  bring-  this 
about.  The  gods  received  human  victims  from 
worshippers  who  themselves  ate  men.  At  a  higher 
stage  cannibalism  ceases,  but  the  sacrifice  is  con- 
tinued. Then  it,  too,  comes  to  an  end.  but  the 
memory  of  it  remains,  and  men  come  to  imagine  that 
demons  and  not  gods  ate  human  victims.  Even 
among  the  Polynesians,  long  before  Christianity  had 
appeared  among  them,  and  while  they  still  believed 
that  their  gods  feasted  on  the  dead,  myths  about  the 
gods,  not  unlike  some  of  our  European  tales,  had 
arisen.  Miru,  queen  of  Hades,  sent  her  beautiful 
daughters  to  entrap  the  hero  Ngaru.  They  brought 
him  to  Hades  and  bound  him,  offering  him  kava, 
with  which  Miru  stupefied  her  victims.  On  him 
alone  of  mortals  it  had  no  effect.  He  saw  the  red- 
hot  oven  in  which  the  victims  were  cooked,  and  asked 
Miru  why  it  was  being  heated.  "  To  cook  you,"  was 
the  hag's  answer.  But  Ngaru  reproached  her,  and 
said  that  her  daughters  had  been  kindly  treated  in 
his  home.  At  these  words  the  heavens  became  black, 
Ngaru  put  his  foot  on  the  oven,  and  rain  fell  in 
torrents,  putting  out  the  fire,  and  sweeping  away 
Miru  and  her  assistants.  Then  he  escaped  to  the 
upper  air.  But  Miru,  being  immortal,  still  keeps  an 
oven  blazing  for  all  the  dead.  It  is  more  than  likely 
that,  in  the  first  instance,  the  custom  of  human 
sacrifice  to  the  gods  originated  the  belief  that  the 
dead  are  eaten  by  them.^ 

The  stories  of  the  second  type  arise  from  those 
occasional  lapses  into  the  customs  of  a  savage  past, 
of  which  the  history  of  civilisation  is  so  full. 
Madness  and  brutalised  lust  have  frequently  reintro- 
duced cannibalism,  while  the  horrors  of  famine  have 
caused  the  worse  horror  of  eating  human  flesh.     The 

^  Gill,  p.  229  seq. 


REALISM  OF  OUR  TALES  305 

evidence  for  both  is  copious  enough,  but  here  it  had 
better  remain  unwritten.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  the 
realism  of  the  folk-tales  of  cannibalism  as  a  perverted 
taste,  or  through  famine,  comes  short  of  the  reality 
which  that  evidence  contains.^ 

^  Some  of  the  incidents  of  folk-tale  cannibalism  are  copied  exactly 
and  with  a  curious  minuteness,  from  actual  practice.  Thus  the  ogre 
is  described  as  sending  round  to  invite  guests,  or  distributing  the 
food.  This  is  actually  done,  e.g.^  among  the  savage  mountain  tribes 
of  Burmah,  in  New  Guinea,  the  New  Hebrides,  etc.  Lumholtz, 
p.  274;  Romilly,  p.  66;  Turner,  p.  313.  The  hero's'  having  to  pre- 
pare the  oven  is  paralleled  by  actual  practice  in  old  New  Zealand, 
where  the  victim  had  to  collect  wood  for  the  fire  and  make  ready  the 
oven,  Andree,  Die  Anthropophagie^  p.  70.  Among  the  Mesayas  of 
the  Amazon  he  had  to  gather  fuel,  and  among  the  Tupis  he  had  to 
light  the  fire  {Ibid.^  pp.  80,  87).  In  many  of  these  cannibalistic  tales 
the  ogre,  etc.,  smells  out  the  concealed  hero,  and  usually  repeats  some 
formula  like — 

"  Fee,  fie,  fo,  fum, 
I  smell  the  blood  of  some  earthly  one." 

Not  only  does  such  a  formula  occur  in  Asiatic  and  European  tales, 
it  is  found  in  stories  of  a  concealed  person  all  over  the  world — Zuni 
(Gushing,  p.  214),  Eskimo  (Rink,  p.  218),  Maori  (Glarke,  p.  90),  Zulu 
(Gallaway,  p.  49),  and  other  African  stories.  Mr  Lang  {Perrault^ 
cvii.)  points  out  that,  in  the  Eumenides^  they  smell  out  Orestes.  It  is 
obvious  that  while  the  close  likeness  of  the  formula  might  suggest 
borrowing,  it  really  arises  out  of  the  "  manner  of  primitive  man,"  as  of 
savages,  viz.,  the  extraordinarily  keen  sense  of  smell  which  they 
possess,  and  which  we  have  lost. 


CHAPTER  XI 

tabu  in  folk-tales 

Bluebeard 

Primitive  and  savage  institutions  are  more  complex 
than  is  generally  supposed.  Such  things  as  religious 
mysteries,  totemism,  and  the  system  of  tabu,  all  point 
to  methods  of  thought  and  reasoning,  which,  at 
such  a  stage,  are  surprising.  In  this  chapter  we  shall 
take  one  of  these  institutions,  that  of  tabu,  and  see 
how  folk-tales  have  preserved  memories  of  its  sway 
in  religion  and  social  custom.  The  first  set  of  tales 
may  be  called  that  of  the  Bluebeard  or  Forbidden 
Chamber  cycle ;  the  second,  the  Cupid  and  Psyche 
cycle. 

I.   The  Forbidden  Chamber. 

The  tales  in  this  series  fall  into  two  classes  ;  those 
in  which  a  woman,  and  those  in  which  a  man,  is 
possessed  of  the  fatal  curiosity.  Both,  in  my  opinion, 
have  a  similar  origin. 

The  story  of  Bluebeard  is  familiar  to  everyone 
from  childhood :  there  are  versions  of  it  in  every 
European  country,  and  only  a  few  need  be  cited. 
They  present  these  common  features,  that  the  former 
wives,  by  breaking  the  command,  are  put  to  death, 
while  the  last  wife  breaks  it,  and  is  about  to  be 
murdered  when  she  is  rescued,  or  having  broken  it, 
outwits  her  husband,  and  succeeds  in  punishing  his 


THE  FEATHER-BIRD  307 

wickedness  by  death.  We  shall  begfin  with  a  Basque 
version.  A  cobbler  is  too  poor  to  feed  his  daughters, 
but  meets  with  a  gentleman  who  offers  to  take  one 
for  so  much  money.  He  goes  off  with  the  eldest  to 
his  palace  and  marries  her,  but  soon  after,  having  to 
go  on  a  journey,  he  leaves  her  his  keys,  saying  she 
may  unlock  every  door  but  one.  This  door  she  does 
open,  and  there  she  sees  a  number  of  dead  bodies. 
She  swoons,  and  that  moment  her  husband  appears, 
consigns  her  to  the  dungeon,  and  feeds  her  on  human 
flesh.  He  next  obtains  her  sister,  who  meets  with 
the  same  fate ;  but  when  he  marries  the  youngest  and 
discovers  her  disobedience,  she  attacks  him  with  a 
sabre  and  puts  him  to  death.  Here  the  wives  are 
only  maltreated,  but  they  are  beheaded  in  an 
Esthonian  tale,  and  the  third  is  only  saved  in  the 
nick  of  time  by  her  page,  who  kills  Bluebeard  and 
marries  the  widow.  ^  Another  type  is  that  of  Grimm's 
Feather-Bird.  The  husband  is  a  sorcerer,  and  shuts 
the  first  wife  in  a  dungeon,  because  she  has  opened 
the  chamber  door  and  discovered  a  basin  of  blood 
within.  He  then  abducts  the  second  sister,  who 
suffers  like  the  other.  The  third  is  cautious,  and 
discovers  her  sisters  in  the  forbidden  room  without 
her  husband's  knowledge.  She  has  withstood  tempta- 
tion :  now  she  will  be  his  bride.  "  Very  well,  but 
carry  a  sack  of  gold  to  my  father  first."  She  puts 
her  sisters  in  the  sack  after  giving  them  due  instruc- 
tions, and  sends  the  sorcerer  off.  Then  she  sets  an 
image  of  herself  on  the  tower,  covers  herself  with 
feathers,  and  escapes.  When  the  bridegroom  and 
his  guests  are  assembled,  her  brothers  arrive  and  put 
them  all  to  death.  In  a  Celtic  variant  the  husband  is 
a  giant  and  kills  the  elder  sisters,  carries  off  all  three 
(the  youngest  restores  the  others  with  a  vessel  of 
balsam)  in  sacks  unwittingly,  and  is  slain  by  the 
clever  youngest  sister ;  in  the  Norse  version  a  troll  is 

1  Webster,  p.  173.     Kirby,  ii.  i. 


308  TABU  IN  FOLK-TALES 

the  murderer  ;  in  an  Italian  it  is  the  devil — he  is 
mocked  by  all  three  wives,  "and  since  that  time 
has  lost  his  taste  for  marrying."  That  is  not 
surprising- !  ^ 

The  Bluebeard  type  of  story  is  curiously  mingled 
in  certain  tales  with  another  type — that  of  the 
Robber  Bridegroom.  A  Suabian  version  is  that  a 
robber  chief,  pretending  to  be  a  great  lord,  married  a 
miller's  eldest  daughter,  whom  he  forbade  ever  to 
enter  a  certain  room  in  his  house,  giving  her  an  egg 
which  she  must  always  hold  in  her  hand  while  he  is 
from  home.  As  soon  as  his  back  was  turned  she 
entered  the  room,  and  saw  there  a  bloody  corpse.  In 
her  horror  she  dropped  the  egg,  and  so  her  dis- 
obedience was  discovered,  and  her  husband  killed  her. 
Disguising  himself,  he  obtained  the  second  daughter, 
who  shared  the  same  fate.  The  third  sister  was  more 
careful,  and  placed  the  Ggg  in  a  safe  place  before 
opening  the  door.  Then  pretending  to  her  outwitted 
husband  that  she  had  received  a  letter  announcing 
her  father's  illness,  she  begged  him  to  take  her  home. 
Arrived  there,  she  at  once  delivered  him  up  to  justice. 
Soon  after  she  fell  into  the  hands  of  his  gang,  who 
would  have  put  her  to  a  fearful  death  had  she  not 
escaped  by  the  aid  of  an  old  woman.  ^ 

In  all  these  tales  the  husband  is  an  evil  being ;  the 
wives,  though  punished,  are  usually  restored ;  and 
Bluebeard  meets  his  reward  in  the  end.  But  we  now 
come  to  several  stories  in  which  the  person  who 
forbids  is  not  evil,  and  the  punishment  on  the  tabu- 
breaker  is  evidently  just.  A  Pisan  tale  may  be  taken 
as  an  example  of  this.     A  lady  asked  a  woodman  for 

1  Grimm,  No.  46.  Campbell,  ii.  289.  This  is  a  variant  of  a  story 
in  which  the  husband  is  an  enchanted  horse,  who,  when  his  head  is 
chopped  off  by  the  heroine,  becomes  a  prince  and  marries  her.  Cf. 
the  Norse  and  German  tales  cited  below  (p.  311).  Thorpe,  V.T.S.j 
p.  288.     Imbriani,  p.  7. 

■^  Meier,  p.  134. 


THE  MYSTERIOUS  GODMOTHER  309 

one  of  his  daughters  as  a  companion.  This  girl 
entered  the  forbidden  chamber,  where  she  saw  a  lady- 
bathing-  and  two  girls  reading.  She  hastily  shut  the 
door,  but  soon  after  was  taxed  with  disobedience,  con- 
fessed, and  had  her  head  cut  off.  So  it  happened  to 
the  second  daughter,  but  the  third  lied,  and  was  sent 
by  the  lady  into  the  forest,  where  a  prince  met  and 
married  her.  Later  her  two  children  disappeared  in 
the  strangest  way,  and  she  was  put  away  as  insane. 
Then  the  lady  appeared,  generously  saved  her,  and 
restored  her  children.^  In  most  of  the  variants  there 
is  only  one  daughter,  and  the  lady  is  frequently  the 
Virgin  in  disguise  (Norse,  Hessian,  Lettish,  Wal- 
lachian,  Lorraine,  and  Wend  stories),^  or  a  mysterious 
woman  who  appears  and  asks  to  be  the  girl's  god- 
mother at  her  baptism  (Czech,  German,  Tuscan), 
and  who,  curiously  enough,  is  delivered  from  an 
enchantment  by  the  girl's  disobedience.^  A  Suabian 
tale  has  a  black  dwarf,  to  whom  the  girl  is  sold  by  her 
father  (here  the  tabu  is  not  to  pluck  roses  from  a 
certain  rosebush) ;  while  in  a  Swedish  story  she  is 
given  to  a  man  with  a  grey  mantle,  through  an 
imprudent  promise  of  her  father's.  As  a  rule,  there  is 
nothing  unpleasant  in  the  forbidden  room,  and  in  all 
the  girl's  children  are  mysteriously  carried  off  by  her 
former  protectress,  because  she  still  persists  in  denial. 
Then  her  husband  resolves  to  send  her  to  the  scaffold 
as  a  murderess  (in  the  Norse  version  the  Virgin  has 
smeared  her  mouth  with  blood,  and  she  is  thought  to 
be  a  cannibal).  There  the  mysterious  lady  appears, 
the  girl  confesses,  and  she  is  at  last  saved,  and  her 
children  are  restored.* 

1  F.L.R.,  i.  196. 

-  Dasent,  p.  198.  Grimm,  No.  3.  Leskien,  p.  498.  Schott,  No.  2. 
Cosquin,  ii.  43.     Haupt  und  Schmaler,  ii.  179. 

2  Waldau,  p.  600.     Ey,  p.  176.     Comparetti,  No.  38. 

*  Meier,  p.  36.  Grimm,  iii.  324.  Cf.  the  mysterious  disappear- 
ance of  the  children  in  the  Husband  and  Wife  tabu  stories,  p.  374 
infra. 


310  TABU  IN  FOLK-TALES 

The  stories  in  which  a  man  breaks  the  command 
and  yields  to  curiosity  show  also,  though  in  a  much 
less  degree,  different  ways  of  looking-  at  the  result  of 
the  act  of  disobedience.  In  the  great  majority  of 
these  tales  the  opening  of  the  forbidden  door,  though 
involving  great  danger,  leads  to  good  luck ;  in  them 
the  person  who  forbids  the  opening  is  evil.  We  shall 
look  at  some  instances  of  this  first.  By  far  the 
largest  group  is  that  in  which  the  forbidden  chamber 
incident  is  followed  by  the  flight  of  the  hero  on  a 
magic  steed,  and  the  transformation  of  objects  which 
impede  the  pursuer's  flight.  The  hero  is  then  chosen 
as  the  husband  of  a  king's  youngest  child,  while  his 
two  brothers-in-law  take  the  credit  of  his  cleverness 
and  valour,  until  the  king  finds  out  the  truth  and  gives 
him  his  fitting  place.  As  told  in  the  Tyrol,  the  story 
runs  that  a  prince,  driven  from  his  kingdom,  took 
service  with  a  certain  man,  who  told  him  to  give 
meat  to  his  mare  and  hay  to  his  bear.  Then,  having 
forbidden  him  to  enter  a  certain  room,  he  went  off 
on  a  journey.  Reversing  the  order,  the  prince  gave 
hay  to  the  mare  and  meat  to  the  bear,  and,  breaking 
the  command,  opened  the  door.  Within,  he  saw  a 
lake,  in  which  he  bathed,  but  when  he  came  out  the 
mare  told  him  that  his  hair  had  been  changed  to 
gold.  He  was  very  much  afraid,  but  the  mare  bade 
him  take  a  comb,  scissors,  and  a  mirror,  and  get 
upon  her  back.  At  once  she  flew  off  like  the  wind, 
closely  pursued  by  the  mysterious  man,  whose  progress 
was  barred  by  the  comb  becoming  a  high  hedge,  the 
scissors  a  forest,  and  the  mirror  a  lake.  The  sequel 
contains  the  prince's  adventures  as  husband  of  a 
princess  who  falls  in  love  with  him  in  spite  of  his 
humble  position,  the  fraud  of  his  brothers-in-law,  and 
his  final  acknowledgment.^ 

The  introduction  to  this  group  of  tales  varies  ; 
sometimes  the  hero,  like  the  Tyrolese  prince,  takes 

1  Schneller,  No.  20. 


THE  ENCHANTED  HORSE  311 

service  with  the  mysterious  personage.  This  occurs 
in  Norse,  German,  Roumanian,  Esthonian,  and 
Lapp  tales. ^  Sometimes  the  hero  is  adopted,  by  a 
drakos  in  a  Greek  story,  or  by  the  queen  of  the 
Yakhs  in  a  Cambodian  tale,  which  has  no  forbidden 
chamber,  but  in  which  the  hero,  Chao  Gnoh,  is 
ordered  not  to  g"o  near  golden  and  silver  pools.  ^ 
But  in  the  greater  number  the  hero  has  been  pro- 
mised to  his  master  before  birth — Greek,  Albanian, 
Russian,  Czech,  Italian,  Tyrolese,  Austrian,  Kamaon, 
and  Swahili,  though  in  some  of  these  the  usual  sequel 
varies  or  is  wanting.^  But  in  nearly  all  occur  the  epi- 
sodes of  some  part  of  the  hero's  body  being  changed 
to  gold — the  inevitable  source  of  the  discovery  of  his 
disobedience,  and  the  flight  on  the  magic  horse.  And 
as  a  rule,  the  magical  objects  which  stay  pursuit  are 
found  in  the  forbidden  room.  The  Norse  and  German 
versions  are  interesting  because  in  both  the  horse 
orders  the  hero  to  chop  off  its  head,  and  when  he  does 
so  it  changes  to  a  king  (enchanted  by  the  troll  of  the 
Norse  story),  or  into  an  enchanted  princess  (German), 
who  gives  him  a  wand  and  bids  him  strike  a  certain 
tree  with  it  when  he  is  in  need  and  she  will  appear  to 
him.  The  Kumaun  story  presents  an  interesting 
variant.  A  yogi  promised  a  childless  king  that  each 
of  his  seven  wives  would  have  a  son,  provided  that  he 
agreed  to  give  up  one  of  them  to  his  keeping.  The 
son  of  the  seventh  was  given  to  the  yogi,  who 
showed  him  all  his  riches,  but  forbade  him  to  open 
a  certain  door.     When  the  yogi  had  gone  out  he  at 

1  Thorpe,  Y.T.S.,  p.  293  (Norse).  Ih'd.,  p.  423  (German). 
Roumanian  F.T.  (hero  takes  service  with  fairies),  p.  27.  Kirby, 
i.  260.  Germania,  1870,  No.  6.  In  these  two  stories  the  usual 
sequel  is  lacking.     For  the  Transformation  episode,  see  p.  173  supra. 

2  Hahn,  No.  45.  Bastian,  Die  Volker  des  Oestlichen  Asiens,  iv. 
350  (with  complete  identity  with  the  European  tales). 

3  Hahn,  ii.  197.  In  the  Swahili  tale  (Steere,  p.  381)  there  is  no 
command,  but  the  hero's  evident  desire  to  hide  his  golden  finger 
shows  that  it  must  have  dropped  out  of  the  story. 


312  TABU  IN  FOLK-TALES 

once  opened  the  door,  and  found  so  many  human 
bones  that  he  concluded  the  yogfi  must  be  an  ogre. 
In  this  belief  he  was  confirmed  by  the  bones  telling 
him  he  would  soon  join  them,  but,  to  avoid  this,  they 
advised  him  to  ask  the  yogi  to  show  him  how  to 
march  round  a  cauldron  of  oil  when  he  was  bidden  to 
do  so,  and  while  the  yogi  was  giving  the  lesson,  to 
cut  off  his  head.  By  following  this  advice  he  escaped, 
and  then  restored  the  bones  to  life.  Similar  advice 
is  given  to  the  hero  by  a  horse  in  the  Swahili  tale 
the  demon  of  which  is  also  a  cannibal,  so  that  these 
two  tales  represent  a  type  of  story  approaching  more 
nearly  than  the  others  of  the  group  to  those  of  the 
Bluebeard  cycle. 

A  French  story  stands  midw^ay  between  this 
group  and  the  next.  Here  it  is  a  king  who  forbids 
his  son  to  enter  the  room,  where  he  finds  a  fountain 
which  turns  his  finger,  dress,  and  hair  to  gold.  Then 
he  flees  off  on  his  father's  steed.  Bayard,  and  the 
barrier  transformations  occur  in  the  usual  way.^  But 
in  the  stories  of  the  second  group,  though  it  is  a  father 
who  gives  the  command  to  his  son,  the  father  loses 
what  the  chamber  contains,  and  the  son's  course  of 
action  leads  on  to  fortune  for  him.  I  cite  the  Servian 
version.  A  king  captured  a  wild  man,  and  shut  him 
up  in  a  room,  forbidding  anyone  on  pain  of  death 
to  open  the  door  and  release  him.  The  cell  was 
under  his  son's  room,  and  he,  troubled  by  the 
noise,  went  down  and  released  the  wild  man,  who  at 
once  made  off.  The  king  would  have  killed  his  son, 
but  the  courtiers  advised  his  banishment  with  a 
servant.  This  servant  personates  the  hero,  and  at 
another  king's  court  tries  to  get  rid  of  him  by  having 
him  sent  to  capture  various  animals.  They  run  off 
whenever  he  approaches,  and  he  is  in  despair,  when 
the  wild  man  covered  with  hair  appears  and  assists 
him.     Then  he  provides  him  with  fine  clothes  and  a 

^  Cosquin,  i.  133. 


KOSHCHEI  THE  DEATHLESS  313 

horse,  so  that  he  is  enabled  to  become  the  successful 
candidate  for  the  king's  daughter.  Of  this  story- 
there  are  Swedish  (with  a  liberated  dwarf),  Norse, 
German,  Polish,  and  Italian  variants.^  They  are 
connected  with  another  and  more  interesting  group, 
as  will  be  seen  from  the  Russian  variant.  A 
prince,  having  married  Marya  Morevna,  is  forbidden 
by  her  to  open  a  certain  room  in  her  absence. 
Curiosity  gets  the  better  of  him,  and  in  the  room  he 
sees  Koshchei  the  Deathless  in  chains,  who  begs  for 
water.  As  soon  as  the  prince  gives  it,  he  bursts  his 
chains,  tells  him  he  will  never  see  his  wife  again, 
and  rushes  off.  The  sequel  tells  how  the  prince,  after 
long  search,  discovered  and  saved  his  wife,  but  not 
till  he  had  undergone  terrible  dangers.  There  is  a 
Serbian  variant,  where  the  wife  forbids  her  husband 
ever  to  go  into  the  twelfth  cellar.  He  opens  it  and 
sees  a  barrel  bound  with  iron  hoops,  and  from  it  a 
voice  cries,  '*  I  am  dying  of  thirst ;  please  give  me  a 
drop  of  water."  It  contains  a  dragon,  who,  as  he 
swallows  the  water,  regains  strength,  bursts  the  barrel, 
and  flees  with  the  wife.^  A  Kashmir  story  may  here 
be  noted.  A  prince  killed  the  jinn  which  destroyed 
his  father,  and  shut  up  its  head  in  one  of  the  twelve 
thousand  rooms  of  his  palace,  forbidding  his  mother 
to  open  it.  When  she  unlocked  it  the  head  told  her 
that  the  prince  was  a  jinn,  and  *'some  day  he  will 
kill  you  as  he  killed  me,  your  husband."  To  compass 
his  destruction  the  head  advised  her  to  send  her  son 
for  tiger  s  milk ;  he  succeeded  in  the  quest ;  then  for 
a  certain  princess ;  again  he  was  successful,  and  the 

1  Mijatovich,  p.  i8o.  Thorpe,  V.T.S.^  p.  86.  Asbjoernsen  and 
Moe,  ii.  Bo.  Grimm,  No.  136.  Woycicki,  iii.  No.  5.  Straparola,  v., 
No.  I. 

^  Ralston,  p.  85.  Cf.  the  story  of  Fedor  and  Anastasia,  where  a 
snake  from  the  forbidden  chamber  flees  with  the  wife.  Mr  Ralston 
remarks  on  the  fact  that  in  Slavonic  tales  it  is  invariably  the  man 
who  breaks  the  tabu.  This  is  a  peculiarity  of  many  Eastern  tales  also, 
see  tn/ra.     Mijatovich,  p.  42.     C/.  variant,  p.  180. 


314  TABU  IN  FOLK-TALES 

truth  was  revealed.^  This  story  is  a  somewhat 
curious  version  of  that  cycle  in  which  a  treacherous 
mother  or  sister  or  wife  plots  with  some  wicked 
being-  against  the  hero.  Some  examples  of  this 
group  have  been  met  with  in  discussing-  the  Water  of 
Life,  and  it  should  be  noted  that,  in  some  of  the 
variants,  the  woman  finds  this  being-  in  a  chamber 
which  the  hero  has  told  her  not  to  open.^ 

''  In  Eastern  fictions,"  as  Mr  Clouston  points  out, 
*'the  forbidden  chamber  does  not  generally  contain 
anything-  horrifying-  to  the  person  w^hose  curiosity 
has  been  unable  to  resist  the  injunction."^  They 
are,  however,  excellent  examples  of  the  fatal  results 
of  tabu-breaking-  by  a  man.  Thus  Saktideva,  having- 
married  a  g-enii  called  Vidhyadhari,  is  forbidden  by 
her  to  mount  a  certain  terrace.  Reg-ardless  of  her 
will,  he  ascends  the  terrace  and  sees  there  three  doors 
of  as  many  rooms  in  each  of  which  lies  a  dead  g-irl. 
Next  he  sees  a  lake  with  a  horse  on  its  bank.  He 
mounts  the  horse,  is  thrown  into  the  lake,  and  that 
instant  finds  himself  back  in  his  own  country  having- 
lost  everything-.  Again,  in  the  Hitopadesa  there  is  a 
similar  incident.  Kandarpaketu  lived  happily  with 
the  semi-divine  queen  of  the  golden  city  until,  con- 
trary to  her  desire,  he  touched  the  picture  of  a 
Vidhyadhari,  which  kicked  him  back  instantaneously 
into  his  own  country.  But  the  classic  example  is 
that  of  the  Third  Calender  in  the  Arabian  Nights ^ 
who,  by  opening  the  golden  door  and  mounting  the 
winged  steed,  lost  at  once  his  eye,  his  forty  charming 

^  Knowles,  p.  2. 

2  See  p.  58  supra.  In  a  Swahili  story  the  hero  is  advised  by  a 
monkey,  who  has  helped  him,  to  open  a  room  in  the  house  of  his 
fiancees  father,  the  Shereef,  as  it  will  reveal  a  valuable  treasure. 
Various  ceremonies  have  to  be  gone  through  in  the  process  ;  these 
in  reality  undo  the  enchantment  with  which  the  Shereef  had  changed 
a  jinn  into  this  monkey  shape,  and  as  soon  as  he  recovers  it  he  bolts 
with  the  girl.     Steere,  p.  175. 

3  P.T,  andF.,  i.  199. 


TIR  NA  N'OG  315 

companions,  and  the  beautiful  palace  where  he  was 
a  welcome  guest.  These  Eastern  stories  are  paralleled 
by  incidents  in  Celtic  romance.  Oisin,  having- 
reached  Tir  na  n'Og,  the  Land  of  Youth,  was  told 
by  its  queen  never  to  stand  on  a  certain  stone.  He 
did  so,  and  saw  his  native  land,  and  the  sight  filled 
him  with  irresistible  longing  to  return  to  it.^  The 
queen  could  not  dissuade  him,  but  warned  him  if  he 
must  go,  never  to  let  his  bridle  leave  his  hand,  or,  in 
another  version,  never  to  dismount.  But  all  this  was 
forgotten  as  soon  as  he  came  to  Erin,  and  at  once  he 
was  changed  to  a  weary  and  helpless  old  man.^ 
These  stories  form  a  connecting  link  between  those 
of  the  Forbidden  Chamber  type  and  those  in  which 
the  wife  only  stays  with  her  husband  so  long-  as  a 
certain  tabu  is  not  broken. 

While  the  theme  of  the  Forbidden  Chamber 
stories  is  the  moral  one  of  the  fatal  effects  of 
curiosity,  we  may  g-o  further  and  seek  their  origin  in 
actual  tabus  of  a  religious  nature  governing-  either 
men  or  women,  to  break  which  usually  resulted  in 
death.  This,  or  some  other  great  evil,  is  the  inevitable 
punishment  for  encroaching  on  sacred  things.     Thus 

^  Cf.  a  Russian  story,  where  a  man  summons  his  friend  from  the 
grave,  and  when  he  appears  asks  to  see  the  world  of  the  dead.  The 
dead  man  places  a  sod  cut  in  the  churchyard  on  the  living  man's 
head  ;  then  he  sees  the  underworld.  Ralston,  p.  306  ;  and  see  p.  103 
supra.  In  many  Celtic  tales  standing  on  a  seer's  foot  enables  anyone 
to  see  the  fairy  paradise,  while  contact  with  anyone  gifted  with  second- 
sight  imparts  the  vision  for  the  time  being  to  the  non-gifted.  There 
appears  to  be  a  substratum  of  truth  in  these  ideas.  Herr  Parish,  in 
his  work  on  Hallucinations^  p.  94,  refers  to  a  case  of  a  woman  seeing 
an  apparition.  Her  husband  saw  nothing  until  she  placed  her  hand 
on  his  shoulder.  Some  cases  are  also  referred  to  by  Gurney, 
Phantasms  of  the  Livings  ii.  189,  who  men  :ons  the  favourable  results 
of  contact  in  "thought-reading,"  which  cannot  be  explained  by 
"muscle-reading."  Hallucinations  are  well-known  to  be  infectious; 
are  they  also  contagious? 

2  Somadeva,  Kathasaritsagara^  bk.  v,  ii.  166.  Clouston,  Book  of 
Sindibad^  p.  309.  Scott,  Arab.  Nights^  i.  222  seq.  Joyce,  Old  Celtic 
Romances^  p.  385. 


316  TABU  IN  FOLK-TALES 

amongf  savagfes  the  sacred  grove,  the  medicine-man's 
fetich  hut,  and  all  such  places,  must  not  be  rashly 
approached,  on  pain  of  death.  The  Hebrew  stories 
of  the  death  of  the  men  of  Bethshemesh  for  looking 
into  the  Ark,  and  of  Uzzah  for  touching-  it,  are 
paralleled  by  what  Pausanias  says  of  the  certain 
death  which  was  meted  out  to  those  who  entered  the 
temple  of  Jupiter  Lycaeus,  or  of  the  petrifaction  of 
the  priestess  who  went  secretly  into  Minerva's  temple 
by  night.  In  Egypt,  too,  the  curious  who  entered 
certain  sanctuaries  saw  such  frightful  phantasms  that 
they  died  of  fear.^  Equally  important  is  it,  in  con- 
nection with  the  tabu  on  sacred  things,  to  remember 
that  in  many  mythologies,  Tongan,  Red  Indian, 
Cingalese,  as  well  as  Semitic,  the  eating  of  a  forbidden 
sacred  food  first  brought  death  into  the  world  with  all 
its  woes,  while  the  effects  of  breaking  the  sacred  tabu 
are  also  pointed  to  in  the  story  of  Pandora  opening 
the  box  and  losing  the  blessings  of  life,  or  of 
Eurypylus  struck  with  insanity  for  opening  the 
sacred  chest  at  Patrse.^ 

But  more  usually  such  tabus  have  a  sexual 
import :  women  are  forbidden  to  see  the  religious 
rites  of  men,  and  men  those  of  women.  Among  the 
Australians  no  woman  may  witness  the  Bora  or  sacred 
mysteries  of  the  men,  on  pain  of  death.  Certain  parts 
of  the  divine  knowledge,  if  discovered  by  the  women, 
would  cause  the  world  to  perish ;  or,  again,  if  a 
woman  came  to  know  them,  her  husband  would  be 
bound  to  put  her  to  death.  Even  the  totemic  draw- 
ings on  the  rocks  are  tabu  to  women,  as  is  the  cave 
containing  the  sacred  mysteries  of  the  Arunta  tribe  ; 
and  the  turndun,  or  bull-roarer,  which  summons  men 
to  the  mysteries,  must  never  be  shown  to  a  woman. 

1  I  Sam.  vi.  19.  2  Sam.  vi.  6.  Cf.  Exod.  xix.  21.  Paus.,  viii.  5  ; 
ix.  34. 

^  Farrer,  pp.  12,  14.  Klemm,  Cultur.-Gesch.^  ii.  155.  Genesis  iii. 
Gardner,  ExpioraHo  Evangelica^  p.  icx). 


RELIGIOUS  TABUS  317 

If  it  is  shown  both  the  woman  and  the  man  who  re- 
veals it  are  put  to  death. ^  Generally  speaking-,  this  is 
true  of  all  savage  ''  mysteries  "  or  secret  societies,  like 
that  of  the  Areoi  in  Polynesia,  which  no  woman  can 
enter ;  or  that  which  exists  among-  the  Shekani  and 
Bakele  in  Africa  for  the  worship  of  Mwetyi ;  or  the 
mysteries  of  the  Porro  fraternity  in  the  Timui  district 
of  West  Africa,  which  are  celebrated  at  night,  all 
intruders  being  put  to  death  or  sold  as  slaves  ;  or  the 
mysteries  of  the  Brazilian  Indians,  from  which  women 
are  warned  off  by  the  playing  of  ''jurupari  pipes,"  the 
mere  chance  sight  of  which  is  punished  withdeath.''^ 
In  the  same  way,  Plutarch  relates  that  no  woman 
might  enter  the  temples  of  Hercules,  while  the  tabu 
against  women  having  to  do  with  certain  sacred 
things  is  equally  illustrated  by  many  Celtic  legends 
about  holy  wells.  Thus  Boand,  wife  of  Nechtan,  was 
dismembered  and  drowned  for  intruding  on  the  well 
in  the  green  of  Sid  Nechtain,  as  was  Sinend, 
daughter  of  Lodan,  for  seeking  wisdom  from  Connla's 
well.  In  other  stories,  Irish,  Welsh,  Highland,  the 
woman  is  drowned  because  she  neglects  or  is  too 
familiar  with  the  holy  well  of  which  she  has  charge — 
a  variation  on  the  original  theme. ^    Similarly,  Vogul 

*  /.A.I.,  ii.  27  ;  xiii.  172;  xxv.  311.  Manning,  Report  on  Aust 
Religion.  Spencer  and  Gillen,  Native  Tribes^  p.  132  ;  Northern 
Tribes^  p.  500  :  "  When  the  youth  is  initiated  ...  he  is  told  that  on 
no  account  must  he  allow  the  women  or  children  to  see  the  bull-roarer, 
or  else  he  will  be  killed,  and  his  mother  and  sisters  also."  Howitt 
and  Fison,  Kamilaroi  and  Kurnai^  p.  268. 

"■'  Ellis,  i.  229  seq.  Reville,  Ret.  des  non-civ.^  i.  no.  Keane,  Man  : 
Past  and  Present^  p.  50.     Wallace,  Amazon^  p.  349. 

3  Wood  Martin,  Faiths  of  Ireland^  ii.  27.  Rhys,  Celtic  Folk-Lore^ 
i.  390.  Campbell,  ii.  147.  Cf.  a  Carib  tale,  in  which  a  monkey  caused 
a  flood  by  lifting  the  cover  off  a  mysterious  tree-stump  from  which 
water  flowed.  Im  Thurn,  p.  379.  In  the  Celtic  tales  some  river  or 
lake  is  formed  through  the  overflowing  of  the  well — Loch  Ness,  the 
Shannon,  etc.  Sacred  springs  in  Ireland,  as  well  as  in  the 
Peloponnesus,  lost  their  virtues  through  being  defiled  by  a  woman. 
Even  now  women  are  not  supposed  to  go  near  certain  Irish  wells,  e.g.^ 


318  TABU  IN  FOLK-TALES 

women  must  not  approach  idols  or  holy  places,  a 
prohibition  which  once  also  obtained  among-  the 
Lapps,  with  the  addition  that  a  woman  must  never 
touch  a  wizard's  drum ;  while  certain  sacrifices,  as 
well  as  the  grove  tenanted  by  the  spirit  to  whom  they 
are  made,  are  tabu  to  Votiak  women.  ^ 

Contrariwise,  men  must  not  view  the  sacred  rites 
of  women.  At  the  ceremonies  performed  at  the 
initiation  of  girls  in  equatorial  Africa  no  male  is 
allowed  to  be  present,  and  a  native  who  had  played 
the  spy  told  Mr  Win  wood  Reade  that,  if  the  women 
knew,  they  would  drag  him  into  the  fetich  hut  and 
flog  him  till  he  died.  Women  who  belong  to  the 
secret  Njembe  society  forbid  any  male  looking  on  at 
their  rites,  and  Dr  Nassau  describes  how  two 
Europeans  who  played  the  spy  were  in  danger  of 
death,  had  they  not  had  the  punishment  meted  out  to 
them  by  the  tribunal  commuted  by  a  heavy  ransom. 
Similar  tabus  against  men  exist  at  the  initiation  rites 
of  girls  in  South  Celebes,  Cambodia,  New  Britain,  andi 
among  the  Kafirs.^  Frequently  religious  or  magical 
rites  involve  the  nakedness  of  the  women  taking  part 
in  them,  and,  as  in  India,  men  are  excluded,  or,  as  on 
the  Gold  Coast,  attacked  and  sent  away.     Such  rites 

that  at  Achill ;  if  they  do  so,  the  well  becomes  full  of  blood.  Wood 
Martin,  op.  cit.^  pp.  30,  88.  These  Celtic  tales  are  paralleled  by  one 
from  Melanesia,  in  which  an  old  woman  keeps  water  in  a  leaf, 
forbidding  her  grandsons  to  go  near  the  place.  They  disobeyed  her, 
and  in  trying  to  shoot  a  lizard  on  the  leaf,  hit  the  latter,  and  caused 
the  waters  to  burst  forth.  They  covered  the  earth,  which  had  hitherto 
been  waterless,  and  thus  the  sea  was  formed.  Codrington,  p.  372. 
Wells  in  Kashmir,  when  looked  at  rashly,  cause  blindness.  In  one 
case  this  results  from  removing  the  stone  cover,  as  the  drowning  does 
in  the  Celtic  tales.  Knowles,  p.  328.  Cf.  the  Tjansylvanian  belief 
that  it  is  dangerous  to  stare  into  a  well,  lest  the  "well-dame"  be 
offended — Leland,  Gypsy  Sorcery^  p.  137.  In  all  such  cases  trespassing 
on  sacred  things  or  on  the  temple  of  deity — the  spirit  of  the  well,  is 
clearly  in  question. 

^    Abercromby,  i.  181-2. 

■^  Reade,  p.  246.     Nassau,  p.  261.     Crawley,  p.  297. 


THE  TABUED  SHRINE  319 

as  these  have  given  rise,  as  Mr  Hartland  shows,  to 
the  story  of  Lady  Godiva  and  Peeping  Tom.^ 
Among"  the  Greeks  no  man  was  allowed  to  take  part 
in  the  rites  of  the  Thesmophoria,  just  as  men  were 
excluded  from  the  Roman  ritual  of  the  Bona  Dea, 
worshipped  at  night  by  women.  No  man  might  land 
on  the  island  at  the  mouth  of  the  Loire,  where  Celtic 
women  annually  performed  orgiastic  rites  to  a 
goddess.  A  similar  tabu  existed  in  Christian  times 
in  connection  with  the  shrine  of  St  Bridget  in  Kildare, 
within  whose  brushwood  fence  no  male  might 
approach  on  pain  of  a  miraculous  vengeance.  This 
had  originated  in  the  earlier  ritual  of  the  pagan 
goddess,  whom  the  saint  had  replaced.  In  the  same 
way  witches  objected  to  men  being  present  at  the 
Sabbat,  which  was  nothing  but  a  survival  of  earlier 
female  orgiastic  rites.  ^ 

To  customs  such  as  these  may  be  traced  the 
earliest  type  of  our  tabu  stories,  those  in  which  a 
direct  punishment  overtakes  the  hero  or  heroine,  but 
especially  the  latter,  as  in  the  group  of  which  the 
Pisan  story  is  a  type.  The  Virgin  who  figures  in  so 
many  tales  of  this  group,  doubtless  represents  an 
earlier  pagan  divinity,  and  the  room  which  the  girl 
may  not  open,  her  forbidden  sanctuary.  We  already 
noted  that  in  these  stories  the  tabu-breaker  finds 
nothing  unpleasant  in  the  room — ^just  as  she  would 
find  nothing  unpleasant  in  the  shrine.  They  would 
thus  have  been  suggested  when  such  a  tabu  no 
longer  existed,  by  earlier  tales  dating  from  the  time 
when  it  did  exist  and  its  nature  was  readily  under- 
stood. The  Eastern  stories,  in  which  a  man  breaks 
the  tabu  and  is  punished,  have  a  less  clear  connection 

^  Ellis,  Tshi-Speaking  Peoples^  p.  226.  Hartland,  Science  of  Fairy 
Tales^  p.  84. 

-  Strabo,  bk.  iv.  Giraldus  Cambrensis,  ii.  34.  For  a  story  of  a 
man  who  went  disguised  to  a  Sabbat  and  was  warned  off  by  a  friendly 
gipsy,  see  Leland,  Gypsy  Sorcery,  p.  74. 


320  TABU  IN  FOLK-TALES 

with  religious  custom,  though  in  them,  as  in  the 
Celtic  tales,  it  is  a  tabu  set  by  semi-divine  beings. 
They  may,  therefore,  have  been  suggested  by  the 
tales  of  a  disobedient  and  curious  woman ;  and, 
indeed,  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  throughout 
a  woman  was  the  tabu-breaker  in  all  the  earlier 
tales. 

There  come  next  the  groups  in  which  it  is  to  the 
disadvantage  of  the  owner  of  the  room  that  the  door 
should  be  opened,  because  it  sets  free  a  being  who 
should  be  shut  up.  The  first  group,  and  possibly  the 
more  primitive,  is  that  in  which  a  treacherous  woman 
opens  the  forbidden  door  and  frees  the  ogre,  giant, 
robber,  etc.,  who  proceeds  to  plot  with  her  against 
the  hero  his  captor,  who  is,  as  a  result,  put  to  death. 
The  next  group  makes  the  imprisoned  monster  rush 
off  with  the  heroine  when  the  hero  sets  him  free ; 
while  in  the  third  (obscuring  the  disadvantage  of  the 
liberation  to  his  captor)  the  captive  monster  ulti- 
mately benefits  his  liberator.  What  connection  has 
the  imprisoned  monster  with  a  religious  tabu?  At 
the  stage  to  which  these  stories  have  developed  it  is 
difficult  to  trace  the  connection,  but  they  are  most 
easily  explained  as  relics  of  earlier  tales,  in  which  it 
was  shown  that  the  owner  of  a  fetich  or  a  personal 
spirit  incurred  danger  or  loss  if  anyone  intruded  on 
the  place  where  it  was  supposed  to  reside.  Further 
proof  of  this  is,  of  course,  necessary,  but  it  is  at  least 
illustrated  by  a  Passamaquoddy  story  from  Mr 
Leland  s  collection.  A  hunter  had  a  small  goblin  on 
which  his  luck  in  hunting  depended,  and  which  he 
kept  shut  up  in  a  box.  But  he  had  also  a  curious 
wife,  who,  in  his  absence,  opened  the  box,  when  a 
hag  made  off  with  the  goblin.  Luck  at  once  deserted 
the  husband,  and  he  returned  to  give  his  wife  a 
beating,  whereupon  she  jumped  into  the  water  and 
became  a  duck.^    With  this  may  be  compared  the 

*  Leland,  A.L.,  p.  300. 


THE  TABUED  FETICH  321 

Kafir  story  of  The  Bird  who  made  Milk,  in  which  the 
magfic  bird,  on  which  depends  a  man's  wellbeing-  and 
which  he  keeps  concealed,  is  lost  through  his  children's 
discovering  its  hiding-place,  and  finally  setting  it 
fi-ee.^  So  in  a  Basuto  story,  a  tree  which  supplies 
milk  must  not  be  touched  by  the  children  of  its 
owner.  The  son  makes  his  sister  fetch  him  some ; 
she  reluctantly  obeys,  and  is  in  consequence  carried 
by  her  father  to  a  cannibal  chiefs  Here  the  owner 
loses  his  milk,  and  the  intruder  is  taken  to  be 
punished.  The  same  idea  is  found  in  the  Aladdin 
group  of  tales,  in  which  the  hero  loses  palace  and 
wife  by  someone's  becoming  possessed  of  his  talisman, 
as  well  as  in  the  stories  in  which  possession  or 
destruction  of  the  separable  life  by  another  involves 
the  destruction  of  its  owner.^ 

Again,  the  danger  which  anyone  runs  by  intrud- 
ing on  a  personal  fetich,  or  (what  comes  to  the  same 
thing)  obtaining  possession  of  it,  is  illustrated  by  a 
Melanesian  story.  A  cannibal  travelled  about  the 
islands  in  a  fish  which  he  had  made,  and  which  he 
kept  in  a  secret  place  in  his  house,  forbidding  his  son 
to  intrude  upon  it.  The  boy  went  to  the  hiding- 
place  in.  his  father's  absence,  got  inside  the  fish,  and 
was  carried  off  to  Opa,  where  his  father,  aware  of 
what  had  taken  place,  came  to  rescue  him  from  the 
people  who  were  about  to  kill  him,  thinking  he  was 
the  cannibal  himself  In  Negro  tales  we  find  many 
incidents  based  on  the  hero's  possession  of  a  fetich 
which  supplies  him  with  whatever  he  desires,  or  tells 
him  what  is  going  on  elsewhere.  Such  stories  reflect 
what  is  actually  believed  about  the  power  of  certain 

^  Theal,   p.   29.      There  are   Basuto  and   Zulu  variants   with  a 
different  sequel. — Jacottet,  p.  123  ;  Callaway,  p.  99. 

2  Jacottet,  p.  186.     The  cannibal,  however,  eats  the  father  himself, 
and  the  girl  is  married  to  his  son. 

^  This  is  very  marked  in   the  curious  Bluebeard  story  cited  on 
p.  142. 

X 


322  TABU  IN  FOLK-TALES 

fetiches  in  the  hand  of  the  sorcerer.  Every  fetich- 
man  has  several  private  fetiches  in  his  house  which 
are  always  kept  shrouded  from  the  vulgar  gaze, 
exactly  as  in  our  tales.  Each  Negro,  again,  hides 
his  *' trade- fetich"  in  a  private  part  of  his  hut,  no 
member  of  his  own  family  even  being  allowed  to 
know  where  it  is  kept.  Family  fetiches,  connected 
with  ancestor-worship,  and  usually  composed  of 
portions  of  the  deceased,  are  also  cherished  secretly. 
The  following  story  of  a  fetich  which  gave  warnings, 
helped  its  owner,  and  kept  him  informed  of  what  was 
going  on  in  his  absence,  was  told  to  Dr  Nassau  by 
those  who  knew  the  parties  and  who  actually  believe 
every  word  of  the  story.  The  fetich  belonged  to  a  man 
called  Elesa,  who  kept  it  carefully  hidden  in  a  chest. 
His  brother-in-law,  knowing  of  its  existence,  entered 
Elesa's  house  in  his  absence  and  opened  the  chest. 
The  lid  flew  off;  out  jumped  the  fetich,  followed  by 
all  the  goods  in  the  box.  The  man  resolved  to  replace 
the  fetich  and  decamp  with  the  goods,  but  he  suddenly 
found  himself  rooted  to  the  spot.  Meanwhile  Elesa 
had  been  made  aware  of  what  was  going  on,  through 
the  power  of  his  fetich,  on  which  unlawful  eyes  had 
looked.  He  returned,  and  found  the  thief  unable  to 
move,  nor  would  he  release  him  until  he  had  agreed 
to  pay  him  a  large  ransom.^  A  Bluebeard  story 
from  real  life,  whatever  we  may  think  of  its  truth ! 
Personal  sacred  things,  like  the  sacred  churinga  of 
the  Arunta  tribesmen,  on  which  neither  women  nor 
the  uninitiated  must  look,  must  therefore  have  been 
carefully  hidden  away,  and  all,  even  the  nearest  and 
dearest,  warned  not  to  intrude  upon  them.  So  Lapp 
women  were  forbidden  to  look  at  the  drum  with 
which  the  shaman  called  upon  the  spirits ;  we  have 
seen  that  the  same  tabu  was  extended  to  the  jurupari 
pipes  in  the  case  of  Brazilian  women.     In  some  cases 

1  Miss  Kingsley,  p.  170.     Nassau,  pp.  18,  165.     For  the  power  of 
the  fetich  in  other  tales,  see  pp.  174,  267. 


BLUEBEARD'S  CHAMBER  323 

also,  the  images  of  the  gods  are  tabu.  Ellis  tells 
us  that  "it  is  considered  impious  to  obtain  a  sight 
of  the  national  idols  in  Madagascar."  Certain 
statues  of  Egyptian  gods  were  hidden  in  the  depths 
of  the  sanctuary,  to  which  only  the  king  and  the  high 
priest  had  access  ;  and  in  the  Eleusinian  mysteries  the 
effigies  of  the  divinities  were  hidden  most  carefully 
from  every  profane  eye.-^  Religion  and  magic  alike 
love  to  hide  their  sacra  under  veils  of  mystery ! 

The  Bluebeard  and  Robber  Bridegroom  stories, 
and  those  in  which  the  hero  finds  fortune  by  opening 
the  door,  have  certainly  nothing  religious  in  them. 
Both  owe  their  origin  to  the  ingenuity  of  the  story 
inventor  working  on  already  existing  materials  at  a 
time  when  the  religious  tabu  had  been  forgotten  or 
required  explanation.  Probably  owing  to  Christian 
influence  the  sacred  enclosure  of  divinity  or  fetich- 
owner  became  the  mysterious  chamber,  filled  with 
horrors,  the  property  of  an  utterly  wicked  and 
depraved  being.  Pagan  divinities  and  priests  fre- 
quently assumed  that  character  in  Christian  times, 
just  as  the  wise-woman  became  the  horrible  witch  or 
the  divinity  a  grisly  demon.  The  due  punishment  of 
the  woman  who  intruded  on  sacred  things  became  a 
vile  act  of  cruelty  perpetrated  on  her  by  a  wicked 
monster  who,  with  imaginative  justice,  was  usually 
brought  to  book  in  the  end.  Other  stories — those  in 
which  a  man  figured — were  developed  on  different 
lines.  Here,  too,  the  being  who  forbade  the  entrance 
was  painted  in  dark  hues,  but  there  was  nothing 
ghastly  in  the  chamber — only__the_-inagicJiorse_and 
certain  magic^  objgcts — another  indication  of  the 
magico-religious  origin  of  the  broken  tabu. 

Thus  stories  belonging  strictly  to  an  age  when 
religious  tabu  was  a  living  custom,  and  showing  how 
those  who  violated  the  tabu  had  come  to  grief,  were 

^  Ellis,   Hist,   of  Madag.,  i.   399.     Foucart,  Myst^res  d^Eleusis^ 
p.  51. 


324  TABU  IN  FOLK-TALES 

gradually  altered,  as  has  been  seen,  and  at  last 
removed  out  of  the  sphere  of  the  religious  tabu 
altogether.  But  as  this  took  place  the  mystery- 
deepened  into  horror,  and  the  punishment  was 
transferred  from  the  violator  of  the  command  to  the 
being  (conceived  as  dreadfully  wicked)  who  uttered 
it.^ 

^  The  subject  has  been  studied  by  Mr  Hartland  in  his  paper, 
"The  Forbidden  Chamber."     F.LJ.,  iii.  193. 


CHAPTER  XII 

TABU  IN  FOLK-TALES — Continued 
The  Lost  Husband  or  Wife 

2.  Cupid  and  Psyche 

The  most  pathetic  of  all  folk-tales  are  those  in 
which,  for  some  apparently  irrational  reason,  a 
husband  loses  his  wife  or  a  wife  her  husband. 
These  irrational  reasons,  as  we  shall  see,  are  tabus ; 
they  occur  more  frequently  in  the  case  of  the  wife 
than  in  that  of  the  husband  ;  and  in  both  cases  they 
are  usually,  at  bottom,  of  the  same  nature. 

The  best-known  Lost  Husband  group  of  stories 
is  that  of  Cupid  and  Psyche,  or  Beauty  and  the 
Beast,  already  discussed  in  the  chapter  on  Beast- 
marriage.  The  classical  tale  of  Cupid  and  Psyche, 
so  well  told  by  Apuleius,  is,  of  course,  nothing-  but 
an  old  Greek  Mdrchen,  with  many  parallels,  and  to 
the  leading  characters  of  which  have  been  given  the 
names  of  Greek  divinities.  The  nearest  parallels  to 
it  are  those  in  which  the  mysterious  bridegroom  has 
no  beast  form,  but  his  wife  must  never  see  him  on 
pain  of  losing  him  for  ever.  Poetical  justice,  of 
course,  usually  demands  that  she  should  recover 
him,  but  only  after  many  trials.  The  simplest  and 
original  form  of  the  central  incident  of  the  story  is 
preserved  in  Apuleius's  literary  form  of  the  Mdrchen. 
The  mysterious  husband  is  not  transformed  to  beast 


326  TABU  IN  FOLK-TALES 

shape  by  enchantment,  but  still  his  wife  must  not 
see  him.  The  Swedish  story  of  Prince  Hatt  under 
the  Earth  is  an  excellent  example  of  this.  A  king" 
has  had  to  give  up  one  of  his  daughters  to  a  mysterious 
being  who  lives  underground  and  is  never  seen,  even 
by  his  wife.^  Three  times  she  is  allowed  to  go  home, 
but  always  on  condition  that  she  reveals  nothing  of 
their  life.  The  third  time  she  does  so,  and  her  step- 
mother advises  her  to  strike  a  light  during  the  night, 
and  see  her  husband.  But  a  drop  of  wax  fell  on  his 
breast,  he  awoke,  the  palace  was  changed  into  a  cave 
full  of  serpents,  and  Prince  Hatt  had  become  blind. 
The  pair  wander  off  together,  but  through  bringing 
his  sister  out  to  see  him,  the  wife  loses  her  husband. 
At  last  she  discovered  her  lost  prince  in  the  hut  of 
a  hag,  who  was  about  to  marry  him,  and  under 
whose  spell  he  had  been  all  along  ;  and  there,  by  dint 
of  strategy,  she  recovered  him  and  killed  the  troll  wife.'^ 
Other  parallels  are  the  Greek  story  of  the  Lord  of 
Underearth,  where  the  bride,  by  her  sister's  advice, 
throws  away  the  sleeping-draught  which  she  must 
take  nightly,  and  thus  sees  her  husband,  and  an 
Italian  variant  in  Basile's  Pentamerone  with  a  similar 
incident.  In  both  the  wife  is  sent  away  in  rags,  but 
herlhusband  eventually  saves  her,  as  in  the  story  of 
Apuleius.^  The  husband  is  a  black  man  in  a  Chilian 
tale,  but  takes  his  true  form  of  a  prince  by  night, 
when  his  wife,  following  the  advice  of  an  old  woman, 
strikes  a  light  to  see  him  ;  she  has  to  wear  out  shoes 
of  iron  before  she  meets  him  again  and  breaks  the 
spell.*  A  Mdrchen  imbedded  in  the  Japanese  Ko-ji-ki 
is  nearly  akin  to  these  tales.     A  maiden  called  Iku- 


^  We  shall  see  later  (p.  421)  how  frequently  these  tales  open  with 
such  a  sacrifice. 

^  Thorpe,  Y.T.S,,  p.  15. 

^  Garnett,  ii.  227.     Pentamerone^  i.  211. 

^  F.L.J.^  iii.  293.  Cf.  Crane,  p.  6.  Wife  recovers  husband  after 
wearing  out  iron  shoes. 


CUPID  AND  PSYCHE  327 

tama  was  visited  by  a  deity  during  the  night  only, 
with  obvious  results.  Her  parents,  hearing  of  these 
nocturnal  visits,  advised  her  to  "sprinkle  red  earth 
in  front  of  the  couch,  pass  a  skein  of  hemp  through 
a  needle,  and  pierce  therewith  his  garment."  Next 
morning  they  traced  the  thread  to  a  shrine  of  a  deity 
at  Mount  Miwa,  and  then  knew  that  the  coming  child 
would  be  the  son  of  a  god.  He  was,  in  fact,  the 
ancestor  of  the  Dukes  of  Miwa.  We  hear  nothing 
more  of  the  red  earth ;  it  was  meant  to  reveal  the 
visitor's  footprints ;  perhaps  a  god  does  not  leave 
any,  or  they  have  dropped  out  of  the  tale.^ 

The  spell  hinted  at  in  these  stories  is  more  evident 
in  others  where  the  husband  has  been  transformed 
to  animal  shape  by  enchantment.  Sometimes  he 
takes  his  true  form  at  night ;  then  his  wife  must  not 
see  him,  and  we  have  the  candle  incident  as  before. 
The  husband  is  a  bear  in  the  Norse  story  of  J!  East  o' 
the  Sun  and  West  o'  the  Moon,"  which  is  otherwise  a 
near  parallel  to  the  Swedish  Prince  Hatt,  and  a  wolf 
in  the  beautiful  Danish  tale  of  *  *  Prince  Wolf  "  In  both 
the  girl,  advised  by  her  mother,  lights  the  candle  to 
see  what  her  husband  is  like  as  a  man,  with  the  usual 
fatal  results.^  Other  stories  have  a  different  tabu 
formula — the  bride  must  never  tell  the  secret  of  her 
husband's  dual  nature,  else  he  will  never  be  freed  from 
the  spell.  The  Lorraine  version  is  most  tragic — the 
wolf-husband  falls  dead  when  the  inquisitive  sister 
wrings  the  secret  from  his  wife.  But  usually,  after  a 
time  of  separation  the  husband,  who  is  a  toad  in  the 
Italian  version,  a  serpent  in  Tuscan  and  Hindu 
variants,  is  recovered,  and  the  enchantment  comes  to 
an  end.^  A  third  formula  is  that  the  bride  must 
never  ask  her  husband's  name.     An  Indian  version 

^  Chamberlain,  Ko-ji-ki^  sect.  Ixv.,  p.  177. 
•^  Dasent,  p.  303.     Mulley,  p.  224. 

^  Cosquin,  ii.  215.     Gubernatis,  Z.J/.,  ii.  381.     Novelline^  No.  14. 
Benfey,  Panchatantra^  p.  144. 


328  TABU  IN  FOLK-TALES 

tells  how  Tulisa  married  the  king  of  the  serpents. 

His  mother,  angry  at  being-  raised  to  the  rank  of 

queen-dowager,  advised  her  to  ask  his  name.     He 

tells  her,  but  disappears,  and  is  only  recovered  after 

great  risks  have  been  incurred.     An  Italian  variant 

makes  the  bride's  sisters  persuade  her  to  ask  the 

man-bird  husband  his  name.     **The  King  of  Love," 

he  replies,  with  like  results.     The  Russian  version  is 

more  tragic,  for  when  the  bride's  mother  discovers 

the   serpent's  name,    Osip,   she  calls  him  from  his 

watery  home  and  kills  him.^    A  fourth  formula  is  that 

the  bride,  when  allowed  to  go  home,  must  not  stay 

beyond  a  certain  time  else  she  will  lose  her  husband, 

and,  as  in  the  Basque  variant,  must  wear  out  seven 

pairs  of  shoes  before  she  finds  him.     Of  this  there  are 

also  Polish,  Italian,  Sicilian,  and  Portuguese  versions  ; 

while  in  Grimm's  story  of  the  **  Iron  Stove,"  the  bride 

is  not  to  speak  more  than  three  words  at  home.^  Other 

tabus  occur  in  the  Scots  stories  of  **The  Black  Bull 

o'  Norroway"  and  **The  Red  Bull  o'  Norroway;" 

in  the  first  the  heroine  is  lost  because  she  moves  her 

foot  in  her  joy  at  the  bull's  victory  over  the  devil ;  in 

the  second  she  loses  the  bull  when,  by  pulling  a  pin 

from  his  hide,  he  regains  his  shape  of  a  handsome 

prince.^ 

Turning  now  to  stories  in  which  the  wife  is  lost 
through  the  husband's  indiscretion,  we  note  a  series 
of  similar  tabus,  as  well  as  a  number  of  others.  Of 
the  first  formula,  not  to  see  the  bride,  there  is  an 
Italian  version  which  is  clearly  derived  from  the 
Cupid  and  Psyche  tale.    Peppino  is  wrecked  on  a  rock, 

1  Asiatic  Journal^  ii.     Crane,  p.  i.     Ralston,  p.  ii6. 

-  Webster,  p.  38.  Cf.  p.  167  for  a  story  with  the  formula  "never 
to  say  anything  about  the  husband."  Toeppen,  p.  142.  Comparetti, 
No.  164.  Pitre,  No.  39.  Coelho,  No.  29.  Indian  and  Lettish  stories 
have  no  tabu,  but  the  mother  burns  the  skin  of  the  beast-husband, 
who  thus  regains  his  true  form  by  the  breaking  of  the  enchantment. 
Cosquin,  ii.  228.     Leskien,  No.  23. 

3  Chambers,  pp.  95,  99. 


MELUSINA  329 

which  opens,  disclosing  some  pretty  girls,  who  take 
him  to  a  castle.  There  one  of  them  comes  to  him  by 
night.  He  is  allowed  to  return  to  his  parents,  who 
give  him  the  inevitable  candle,  and  when  he  lights 
it  everything  disappears.  The  mysterious  wife  Is 
recovered  after  years  of  searching.^  Parallel  to  this 
is  the  tabu  in  the  mediaeval  romance  of  Mdusina,  who 
is  cursed  by  her  mother  to  become  a  serpent  from  the 
waist  downwards  every  Saturday,  till  she  should 
marry  a  man  who  would  promise  never  to  see  her  on 
that  day,  and  should  keep  his  promise.  The 
husband's  curiosity  overcame  him,  and,  looking 
through  the  keyhole,  he  beheld  her  naked,  and  lost 
her  for  ever.  In  Jean  d' Arras'  Chronicle,  which 
sums  up  the  many  versions  of  this  highly  popular 
tale,  the  introduction  relates  that  Melusina's  mother, 
the  fay  Pressina,  was  mated  to  a  mortal,  who  lost  her 
because  he  broke  the  tabu  imposed  upon  him  of 
never  visiting  her  at  her  confinement.'^  (The  Greek 
myth  of  Actaeon,  changed  to  a  stag  and  dismembered 
by  his  own  hounds,  because  he  had  seen  Diana 
bathing,  has  an  obvious  connection  with  such  talesP> 
Actaeon  was  not  Diana's  husband,  but  he  broke  some 
tabu  which  she  had  instituted.  Possibly  the  Greeks 
borrowed  this  myth  from  Babylon ;  at  all  events,  in 
the  legend  of  Gilgames  we  hear  of  a  shepherd  changed 
into  a  leopard  by  the  goddess  I  star,  and  then  hunted 
by  his  sheep-boy  and  torn  by  his  dogs. 

The  second  formula,  not  to  reveal  the  secret,  is 
well  Illustrated  by  tales  from  lower  levels  of  culture, 
Malagasy  and  Negro,  though  it  is  found  in  the  Celtic 
idea  of  the  fairy  wife  whom  her  human  husband 
reproaches  with  her  origin.  ''  She  disappears,  taking 
with  her  the  children  and  fortune  she  brought  him. 
The  gorgeous  palace,   fit  for  the  entertainment  of 

^  Crane,  p.  7. 

•^  Keightley,  Fairy  Mythol.^  p.  480.    Baring-Gould,  Curious  Myths^ 
p.  470. 


330  TABU  IN  FOLK-TALES 

kings,  vanishes,  and  he  finds  himself  again  in  his 
dilapidated  hut  with  a  pool  of  raindroppings  from  the 
roof  in  the  middle  of  the  floor."  ^  The  Malagasy 
story  is  that  a  native  drew  from  the  water  a  nymph 
who  agreed  to  marry  him  if  he  would  never 
reveal  her  origin.  To  this  he  at  once  agreed.  One 
day,  while  drunk,  he  was  asked  why,  being  so  poor, 
he  had  been  able  to  marry  such  a  beautiful  wife.  He 
told  the  story  ;  at  once  his  wife  returned  with  her 
daughters  to  the  water,  but  left  her  sons  behind  her 
on  land,  where  their  descendants  are  still  living.  A 
similar  Fjort  story  has  a  curious  introduction. 
Mavunga  pulled  the  leaves  of  certain  trees,  when 
they  changed  to  men  and  women.  One  of  the  latter 
married  him,  and  commanded  his  fetich  to  make  him 
handsome,  and  provide  a  nice  house  for  them. 
Meanwhile  Mavunga's  relations  invited  him  to  their 
village.  His  wife  forbade  him  to  say  anything  of  the 
origin  of  his  happiness,  or  to  eat  any  of  their  food 
which,  as  she  knew,  was  poisoned.  He  was  on  the 
point  of  revealing  all,  when  he  heard  his  wife  calling 
him,  and  ran  home  where  he  was  well  scolded.  On  a 
second  visit,  however,  he  told  all.  One  by  one  his  fine 
garments  and  ornaments  disappeared ;  he  returned 
home,  and  discovered  that  wife  and  house  had  dis- 
appeared for  ever.  Another  West  African  story,  in 
Dr  Nassau's  collection,  resembles  this  but  introduces 
other  incidents.  Here  the  poor  son  of  a  king  finds 
his  meals  made  ready  for  him  in  his  lonely  hut.  This 
has  been  done  by  a  woman  called  Ilambe,  who 
belongs  to  the  awiri  (a  kind  of  fairies).  To  effect 
her  purpose  she  concealed  herself  within  a  forest  rat 
which  he  had  killed,  coming  forth  from  it  in  his 
absence.  When  he  discovered  this  through  the 
advice  of  a  wizard,  he  married  her,  but,  said  she, 
""  Never  say  to  me  that  I  came  from  the  low  origin 
of  a  rat's  head."     With  the  help  of  her  fetich  Ilambe 

Campbell,  Superstitions  of  the  Scottish  Highlands^  p.  42. 


A  TSHI  STORY  331 

made  her  husband  wealthy,  and  supplied  him  with 
houses,  servants,  and  fields.  Ships,  too,  came  to 
trade  whenever  she  willed.  One  day,  under  the 
influence  of  liquor,  the  man  grew  angry  at  her 
chiding,  and  uttered  the  fatal  words.  In  spite  of 
her  children's  pleading  she  said  she  must  leave  him, 
and  departed  with  all  of  these,  save  the  two  eldest. 
In  this  case  the  husband  did  not  lose  his  wealth.^ 

A  story  current  among  the  Tshis  resembles  these. 
A  native  of  Chama  married  a  woman  who  was  a 
fish  by  nature,  promising  never  to  reveal  what  she 
was.  One  day  she  wished  to  return  to  her  native 
element,  and  he  insisted  on  accompanying  her,  with 
the  result  that  he  was  speared  by  a  fisherman. 
When  he  recovered,  he  and  his  wife  returned  home, 
and  he  hid  the  spear  in  the  thatch,  where  the  owner 
ultimately  found  it,  and  forced  the  man  to  reveal  all. 
No  evil  consequences  followed  the  breach  of  his 
promise  at  the  moment,  but  later,  when  he  had  taken 
a  second  wife,  she  taunted  the  fish-woman  with  her 
origin.  She  returned  to  the  water  with  her  youngest 
child,  leaving  the  two  elder  children,  whose  descend- 
ants bear  her  name,  and  never  eat  of  that  particular 
kind  of  fish.^  This  story,  thinks  Major  Ellis,  is 
connected  with  the  totem  beliefs  of  the  Tshi  tribes. 
In  the  Celtic  variant  it  is  possible  that  the  fairy  bride 
was  once  an  animal  also,  but  this  part  of  the  story 
was  gradually  dropped. 

The  third  formula,  never  to  name  the  wife,  occurs 
in  an  Esthonian  tale,  which  mixes  this  formula  with 
the  first.  The  handsome  but  despised  youngest  son 
of  a  farmer  married  a  mermaid,  who  carried  him  to 

^  Ferrand,  p.  91.  Dennett,  p.  42.  Nassau,  p.  351.  We  have 
already  met  with  the  hiding  incident  in  other  tales,  Eskimo,  etc., 
p.  261,  while  the  loss  of  all  his  possessions  by  the  reckless  man  is  also 
found|in  the  Melanesian,  Swahali,  and  Uganda  Puss  in  Boots  tales, 
pp.!  226-229,  where  I  have  cited  a  Basuto  story  which  is  a  close 
parallelto  Dr  Nassau's  West  African  variant. 

■*  Ellis,(  Tshi-Speaking  Peoples^  p.  209. 


3S2  TABU  IN  FOLK-TALES 

her  home  under  the  sea,  telling'  him  he  must  never 
call  her  ''Mermaid."  Each  Thursday  she  remained 
apart,  and  the  hero,  thinking,  like  Melusina's  husband, 
that  she  had  a  lover,  spied  upon  her  and  saw  her 
mermaid  form.  Next  morning  she  returned,  only  to 
bid  him  farewell  for  ever,  and  with  a  crash  he  found 
himself  on  the  shore,  changed  into  an  old  man,  who 
died  soon  after.  A  Norman  story  varies  the  formula 
slightly ;  the  knight  of  the  Chateau  d'Argouges,  who 
has  married  a  fay,  must  never  use  the  word  **mort" 
in  her  presence.  One  day  when  she  kept  him  waiting 
because  of  her  elaborate  toilette,  he  said  sarcastically, 
■  *  Belle  dame,  seriez  bonne  a  aller  chercer  la  mort  car 
vous  etes  bien  longue  en  vos  besognes."  Instantly 
she  disappeared,  striking  the  wall  with  her  hand, 
where  the  print  is  still  to  be  seen.^  Compare  these 
with  the  Shawnee  myth  of  Yellow-Sky,  a  mysterious 
girl,  who  agrees  to  wed  her  lover  if  he  will  never 
mention  her  name.  To  do  so  would  involve  him 
in  calamity.  She  died,  still  warning  him.  Long 
after  he  uttered  her  name,  and  was  transformed  into 
a  buck.^ 

To  the  fourth  formula,  not  to  stay  too  long  at 
home,  corresponds  the  incident  in  many  tales,  where 
the  husband,  returning  home  with  his  wife,  leaves 
her  outside  the  town  till  he  visits  his  long-lost 
parents.  She  implores  him  not  to  kiss  them ;  he 
does  so,  and  oblivion  of  his  past  life  follows.  Only 
after  a  long  time,  and  when  he  is  on  the  eve  of 
marrying  another  woman,  does  the  true  bride  succeed 
in  recalling  everything  to  his  remembrance.  This 
incident  is  the  usual  sequel  to  the  stories  of  the 
transformation  flight,  and  in  some  the  kiss  of  oblivion 

1  Kirby,  p.  49.  Berenger-Feraud,  ii.  357.  Cf.  the  Tshi  stories 
cited  later  in  this  chapter,  and  the  curious  Basuto  tale  in  the  chapter 
on  "Helpful  Animals,"  p.  228.  Here  the  wife"  comes  out  of  an 
ostrich-egg,  and  must  never  be  called  "  Daughter  of  an  Ostrich  Egg." 

-  Lanman,  Haw-Hoo-Hoo^  231. 


THE  IRRITATED  WIFE  338 

is  represented  as  resulting  from  the  pursuer's  curse. 
The  idea  of  the  forgotten  former  life  may  have  been 
borrowed  from  the  curious  but  widespread  pheno- 
mena of  alternating"  personality,  whether  resulting 
naturally  or  caused  by  the  primitive  hypnotic  methods 
of  the  medicine-man  (in  which  case  the  curse  would 
be  explained) ;  but  the  command  not  to  kiss  is  a 
clear  case  of  tabu,  easily  explainable,  as  we  shall 
see. 

Another  tabu  formula  is  that  in  which  the  husband 
must  never  irritate  his  wife,  or  ask  the  reason  of 
anything  which  she  does.  It  is  illustrated  by  a 
M'drchen  in  the  Japanese  Ko-ji-ki.  A  jewel  was  born 
of  a  maiden  impregnated  by  the  sun's  rays.  It  came 
into  the  possession  of  a  rich  man,  and  turned  into  a 
lovely  girl,  whom  he  married.  But,  growing  proud, 
he  reviled  her,  and  she  refused  to  stay  with  him. 
She  returned  to  the  land  of  her  ancestors,  and  is  now 
a  deity  called  Princess  Akam.  There  is  a  Dyak  story 
with  a  fish  caught  by  a  man  and  then  turning  into 
a  girl.  When  she  has  grown  up,  she  marries  his  son, 
but  leaves  him  because  he  struck  her,  and  resumed 
her  fish  shape  in  the  water.  The  same  story  is  told 
by  the  Dyaks  of  a  swan-maiden.  The  husband  had 
a  bad  temper,  and  took  off  his  jacket  to  beat  her, 
when  she  vanished,  leaving  her  child  behind  her.  A 
similar  tale  is  current  among  the  Melanesians.  Here, 
however,  the  wife  is  a  ghost  given  to  the  man  by  his 
dead  uncle.  She  bears  him  a  child,  but  because  she 
is  suspected  of  untruthfulness  by  her  husband,  he 
beats  her  and  bids  her  go  back  to  her  own  country. 
This  she  does,  leaving  her  child  behind  her,  but  the 
sequel  has  a  touch  of  true  pathos  in  it.  The  husband 
found  the  child  crying,  and  sought  help  from  all  the 
creatures.  Only  the  spider  would  help  him,  and 
spun  a  line  from  earth  to  heaven  on  which  he  carried 
father  and  child  to  the  sky.  There  the  child  recog- 
nised its  mother,  and  called  to  her;    her   affection 


334  TABU  IN  FOLK-TALES 

welled  up  agfain,  and  all  three  returned  to  earth  on 
the  spider's  back.  The  formula  occurs  also  in  the 
Persian  History  of  Nassar,  and  in  this  form  has 
several  variants.  A  man  obtains  a  genie's  daugfhter 
to  wife  on  condition  that  he  never  contradicts  or 
irritates  her.  She  throws  her  children  to  wolves,  and 
into  the  fire ;  he  preserves  his  temper.  But  one  day- 
she  dashes  some  food  sent  them  by  a  g"randee  to  the 
g-round  because  she  knows  it  is  poisoned.  He 
upbraids  her  for  her  temper.  "Young-  man,"  she 
cried,  "on  the  day  of  our  union  you  promised  not 
to  ask  the  reason  of  anything  I  should  do.  The 
children  whom  you  thought  I  had  given  to  wolves 
and  thrown  into  the  fire,  were  simply  delivered  to 
their  nurses,  and  are  alive.  Now  I  can  remain  with 
you  no  longer,"  and  changing  into  a  dove,  she  flew 
away,  and  left  him  lamenting.^ 

In  many  Welsh  fairy-bride  stories  the  man  can 
only  keep  his  wife  (whom,  in  some  versions,  he  has 
obtained  by  discovering  her  name)  by  promising 
never  to  touch  her  with  iron.  This  usually  happens 
by  accident,  as  when  the  husband,  trying  to  catch  his 
horse,  throws  the  bridle  at  it,  missing  it  and  striking 
his  wife ;  or  by  handing  her  the  shears  with  which  he 
has  been  shearing  the  sheep ;  or  by  playfully  throw- 
ing at  her  a  bundle  of  rushes  in  which  his  reaping- 
hook  is  bound  up.  In  all  she  vanishes  at  once, 
though  sometimes  returning  to  watch  over  her 
children  (whose  descendants  are  still  living),  as  in 
one  tale  where,  at  night,  the  husband  hears  her 
singing 

"  Lest  my  son  should  find  it  cold, 
Place  on  him  his  father's  coat ; 
Lest  the  fair  one  find  it  cold. 
Place  on  her  my  petticoat."  - 

1  Ko-ji-kiy  sect,  cxiv.,  p.  258.     Ling   Roth,  i.  303.     Codrington, 
p.  379.    Clouston,  E.R.,  pp.  56-57. 

2  Many  versions  in  Rhys,  i.  86,  97,  128,  147. 


TABU  IN  REAL  LIFE  335 

It  can,  I  think,  be  shown  that  nearly  all  these 
tabu  formulae  arose  out  of  actual  custom,  and  by  way 
of  setting-  forth  what  conceivably  might  happen  or 
did  happen  througrh  breaking  the  tabu.  Take  the 
first  formula,  in  which  husband  or  wife  must  not  see 
each  other,  we  find  that  the  Samoyede  wife  must 
conceal  her  face  from  her  husband  for  two  months 
after  marriage,  and  that  among  the  Port  Moresby 
natives,  among  the  Tipperahs  of  Burmah,  in 
Timbuctoo,  with  the  Iroquois,  as  well  as  the 
Nufoers,  the  husband,  for  a  certain  time,  never 
sees  his  wife,  visits  her  secretly  by  night,  and  leaves 
her  before  dawn.  This  was  also  the  case  among  the 
early  Romans,  as  well  as  in  ancient  Sparta,  where 
sometimes  the  pair  did  not  see  each  other  till  a  child 
was  born.^  Elsewhere,  in  Egypt,  South  Arabia, 
Morocco,  Kumaun,  and  with  the  upper  classes  in 
China,  the  husband  does  not  see  his  wife  till  the 
ceremonies  are  over,  or,  as  in  ancient  Egypt  (as 
illustrated  by  a  story  in  Maspero's  collection,  where 
the  bridegroom  does  not  know  that  his  sister  has 
been  made  his  wife  till  next  morning),  until  the 
marriage  has  been  consummated.  This  practice 
also  obtains  in  Manchuria,  Persia,  and  parts  of 
South  Africa.^  On  the  borders  of  Europe  and  Asia, 
the  custom  still  exists  among  many  of  the  peoples 
in  the  Caucasus  region.  With  the  Chevsun  the 
married  woman  remains  for  a  year  with  her  family ; 
she  and  her  husband  meet  in  secret,  and  do  not  look 
at  each  other  before  strangers,  until  the  first  child 

1  Ellis,  Psychol,  of  Sex^  ii.  7.  Chalmers,  New  Guinea^  p.  163. 
Lewin,  p.  203.  Caillie,  Timbuctoo^  i.  94.  Lafitau,  Mceurs,  i.  576.  (I 
owe  these  last  two  references  to  Lang,  Custom  and  Myth^  pp.  72-73-) 
Guillemard,  Cruise  of  Marc  he  sa^  ii.  287.  Jevons'  Plutarch^  Romane 
Questions,  p.  565.     Lycurgus,  xv.  48. 

'-^  Lane,  Modern  Egyptians,  i.  197.  Featherman,  Races  of  Mankind, 
V.  422.  Leared,  Morocco,  p.  36.  Panjab  Notes  and  Queries,  ii.  244. 
Giles,  i.  193.  Maspero,  p.  54.  Folk-Lore,  i.  489.  Pinkerton,  Voyages, 
ix.  154.    J.A.I.,  xix.  271. 


336  TABU  IN  FOLK-TALES 

is  born.  This  was  the  case  till  recently  in  Georgia. 
There,  as  with  the  Tcherkes,  it  is  a  gross  insult  to 
ask  a  man  how  his  wife  is,  while  among  the  latter 
people  the  husband  must  go  secretly  by  night  to 
see  his  wife.  {  M.  Kovavelsky  explains  all  this  as  a 
survival  of  group  marriage  ;  several  brothers  owning 
several  wives  in  common,  and  visiting  them  secretly 
lest  there  should  arise  any  suggestion  of  exclusive 
rights  in  any  one  of  them.^  Be  this  as  it  may,  such 
customs,  which,  among  those  who  use  them,  have  all 
the  force  of  tabus,  explain  our  stories  in  which 
husband  or  wife  must  not  see  each  other,  as  well  as 
the  evil  results  of  indiscretion.  As  Mr  Jevons, 
speaking  of  Plutarch's  Roman  instance,  says, 
"The  prosaic  Roman  punctiliously  observed  fairy 
etiquette  in  these  matters,  and  habitually  behaved 
like  an  inhabitant  of  fairyland."  All  our  examples 
dwell  on  the  seclusion  of  the  wife  rather  than  of  the 
husband,  but  they  may  be  interpreted  either  way. 
Mr  Lang,  however,  cites  a  story  from  the  Vedas,  in 
which  Urvasi  tells  Puruvaras  that  he  must  never  let 
her  see  him  naked,  and  suggests  that  this  is  doubt- 
less the  remnant  of  "a  traditional  Aryan  law  of 
nuptial  etiquette.""  The  folk-tales  of  the  first  group 
must  have  originated  in  stories  told  at  an  earlier 
date,  and  in  a  simpler  manner,  to  explain  the  custom, 
or,  possibly,  to  give  it  support  and  so  point  the  moral, 
just  as  children  are  warned  by  the  story  of  Struwel- 
peter,  the  naughty  boy  whose  evil  deeds  brought  him " 
to  grief  Moral  teaching  is  always  of  more  effect 
when  illustrated  by  a  story,  as  preachers,  ancient  and 
modern,  know  well,  and  many  savage  folk-tales  may 
have  had  no  other  purpose  primarily.  Such  customs 
and  such  folk-tales  have  occasionally  given  rise  to 
setiological  myths.  Here  is  an  Eskimo  example. 
The  sun  and  moon  were  sister  and  brother,   and 

^  "  La  Famille  Matriarchale  en  Caucase,"  L Anthropologies  iv.  272. 
2  Custom  and  Myth^  p.  76. 


THE  SPOUSE^S  NAME  337 

lived  in  one  house.  Every  night  the  sun  was  visited 
by  a  man,  but  could  not  tell  who  it  was ;  in  other 
words,  bridegroom  and  bride  must  not  see  each  other. 
This  Eskimo  Psyche  hit  upon  the  plan  of  blackening" 
her  hands  and  rubbing"  them  on  the  man's  back, 
and  next  day  found  her  brother  blackened.  That  is 
why  the  moon  has  black  spots.  The  Indians  of  the 
Amazon  tell  the  same  story  of  the  sun  and  moon  ; 
but  here  the  lustful  visitor  is  the  woman,  because  the 
moon  with  them  is  a  female.  So  among  the 
Australians,  with  whom  the  practice  is  found,  the 
deity  Bunjil  of  the  Wawarongs  has  a  wife,  Boiboi, 
whose  face  he  has  never  seen.^ 

The  third  tabu  formula,  not  to  ask  the  husband's 
name,  or,  in  the  case  of  the  wife,  not  to  name  her,  is 
also  directly  illustrated  by  existing  custom,  and  the 
stories  are  explicabje  in  precisely  the  same  way  as 
the  former  groups.  /  It  has  already  been  seen  that  the 
name  is  part  of  one's  personality,  and  is  not  revealed 
lest  its  owner  should  be  put  in  the  power  of  its  dis- 
coverer. This  fear  with  many  peoples  extends  to  the 
husband  or  wife.  Thus  the  wife  must  not  utter  her 
husband's  name,  when  she  knows  it,  among  the  Bari 
of  East  Africa,  the  Zulus,  the  Kafirs,  the  Red 
Indians,  the  Hindus,  the  Aino.  The  last-mentioned 
people  think  that  if  their  wives  did  so,  it  would  be 
equivalent  to  killing  their  husbands.  Conversely, 
Solomon  and  Pelew  Islanders,  Todas,  Ojibways  and 
other  Red  Men,  as  well  as  modern  Servians,  are  very 
cautious  about  mentioning  the  names  of  their  wives.  ^ 
Frequently  this  prohibition  extends  to  the  names  of 

^  Rink,  p.  236.  Hartt,  Afnazonian  Tortoise  Myths,  p.  40.  Keane, 
Man:  Past  and  Present,  p.  151. 

^  Munzinger,  Ostafrik.  Stud.,  p.  526.  Callaway,  Relig.  System  of 
Amazulu,  p.  316.  Shooter,  Kafirs  of  Natal,  p  211.  Dorman,  p.  154. 
Ward,  Hindus,  ii.  337.  Batchelor,  p.  259  seq.  Guppy,  Solomon  Is., 
i.  47.  Marshall,  Among  the  Todas,  p.  73.  Jones,  Ojibways,  p.  162. 
Folk- Lore,  ii.  71. 

Y 


338  TABU  IN  FOLK-TALES 

the  wife's  or  husband's  relations,  while  with  many 
peoples  a  whole  series  of  words  and  phrases  used 
by  one  sex  is  tabu  to  the  other. 

The  fourth  formula,  involving  danger  to  either 
spouse  from  the  relations  of  the  other,  is  explainable 
as  an  extension  of  the  widespread  savage  belief  that 
such  danger  does  actually  exist.  As  we  have  just 
seen,  the  names  of  such  relations  are  frequently  tabu. 
The  most  definite  instance  of  avoidance  of  relations 
by  marriage  is  that  in  which  the  husband  must  never 
look  at,  or  talk  to,  his  mother-in-law  ;  or  the  wife  to 
her  mother-in-law.  This  occurs  among  Australian 
tribes,  in  Polynesia,  New  Guinea,  North  America, 
and  in  some  parts  of  Africa,  to  mention  only  a  few 
cases ;  while  the  perennial  amusement  afforded  by 
jokes  about  the  mother-in-law  among  certain  classes 
among  ourselves  is-doubtless  a  reminiscence  of  some 
similar  custom.^  (^ Our  stories  belong  to  a  time  when 
the  custom  was  only  dimly  remembered,  and  the 
precise  nature  of  the  danger  from  relations  by 
marriage  was  clearly  misunderstood.  The  tabu  has 
made  a  volte-face,  and  the  danger  lies  indirectly 
through  the  visit  paid  by  husband  or  wife  to  his  or 
her  relations.  Sometimes  this  danger  is  that  they 
may  make  the  husband  forget  his  wife,  or  she  may 
stay  too  long  with  them  ;  or  again,  their  inquisitiveness 
may  lead  to  husband's  or  wife's  ruin.  This  has  been 
noted  in  the  Cupid  and  Psyche  group  of  tales,  where 
so  frequently  the  husband  has  an  animal  form.  It  is 
also  the  subject  of  our  second  tabu  formula.  Why 
should  the  true  nature  of  the  husband  or  wife  not  be 
made  known?  It  might  be  explained  by  the  simple 
idea  underlying  the  theory  of  one's  name  being  part 
of  one's  nature ;  hence,  for  a  stranger  to  know  one's 

1  Dawson,  Aust.  Aborigines,  p.  29.  Curr,  Ausf.  Race,  passim, 
Williams,  Fiji,  i.  136.  Klemm,  Cultur-Gesch,,  ii.  TJ.  Schoolcraft, 
Indian  Tribes,  ii.  196.  J.A.I.,  xxiv.  296 ;  xxv.  200.  For  some 
other  instances,  see  Tylor,  Early  History  of  Mankind. 


THE  IRON  TABU  339 

name  or  nature  means  danger.  But  we  must  add  to 
this  the  fact  that  the  husband  or  wife  in  these  tales 
has  usually  a  trace  of  fin  or  fur  or  feather.  They 
must  then  have  been  suggested,  like  all  stories  of 
Beast-marriage,  by  totemistic  beliefs ;  and  when 
Totemism  as  an  institution  was  passing  away  the 
necessity  of  concealing  the  animal  nature  of  the 
spouse  would  readily  become  prominent  in  the  stories. 
The  Malagasy  and  Tshi  stories  are  both  totemistic ; 
a  clan  or  sept  is  said  to  have  descended  from  this 
union.  So  in  another  Tshi  story,  where  a  man 
marries  a  fish  called  appei,  which  is  a  young  woman 
so  long  as  she  is  his  wife,  none  of  their  descendants 
must  ever  eat  appeiy  else  they  will  become  fish.^  The 
stories  have  been  told  to  explain  the  animal  origin  of 
this  or  that  clan,  and  the  tabu  has  been  added  on  the 
model  of  existing  tabu  stories,  and  by  way  of  giving 
point  and  verve  to  them.  Underlying  all  stories  with 
this  formula,  is  the  enmity  of  the  family  of  the 
husband  to  his  wife,  or  vice  versa,  illustrated  best  of 
all  in  the  stories  of  the  jealous  sisters,  who  wound  the 
(animal)  husband  by  strewing  glass  on  the  place 
which  he  must  pass  through.^ 

Finally,  the  tabu  which  forbids  the  husband  to 
touch  his  wife  with  iron,  falls  into  line  with  the 
numerous  stories  in  all  of  which  iron  is  fatal,  usually 
to  fairies,  or  preserves  its  owner  against  the  attack 
of  demons  or  spirits.  In  all  this  there  is  a  vivid 
glimpse  into  the  dim  past,  when  bronze  or  iron  and 
those  who  used  it  were  looked  upon  with  superstitious 
awe  by  people  yet  in  the  Stone  Age.  Observing  this, 
the  former  made  use  of  it  as  a  means  of  terrorising 
by  magic  the  people  of  the  inferior  race ;  and  long 
after  the  use  of  stone  had  passed  away,  the  magical 
-  virtue  of  iron  was  remembered.  But  now  it  was  no 
longer  fellow  human  beings  whom  it  could  terrify. 
Its  power  existed  only  over  fairies,  demons,  spirits, 

^  Ellis,  op.  cit.^  p.  211.  -  See  p.  255. 


340  TABU  IN  FOLK-TALES 

who  ceased  to  harm  those  who  possessed  it,  or,  like 
the  fairy  wife,  fled  away  from  its  touch.  Yet  in  the 
fairy  wife  we  may  see  the  relic  of  the  Stone  Age 
women  mated  to  their  metal-using  conquerors,  and 
cowering  in  terror  before  their  apparently  magical 
weapons. 

As  for  the  tabu  forbidding  the  husband  to  irritate 
his  wife,  who,  it  should  be  observed,  is  usually  a  fairy, 
I  confess  that,  as  a  tabu,  it  is  somewhat  baffling. 
But  as  stories  invented  (shall  we  say  by  women)  to 
explain  the  natural  objection  which  the  wife  always 
has  to  being  crossed,  as  well  as  the  danger  which 
may  result  from  it — a  danger  perfectly  patent  to  the 
savage,  who  in  so  many  cases  views  women  at  all 
times,  and  especially  at  various  critical  epochs,  as 
highly  dangerous,  the  stories  explain  themselves. 
And  here  we  may  leave  them,  till  a  better  explanation 
is  suggested. 

Of  most  of  these  tabu  formulae  we  have  found 
examples  from  primitive  peoples  which  are,  in  most 
cases,  directly  drawn  from  existing  tabu  customs. 
Some  other  examples  may  be  cited.  Wurunnah,  a 
shameless  Australian  black-fellow  stole  two  girls,  and 
bade  them  collect  pine-tree  bark.  They  ,  refused, 
saying  that  if  they  did  so,  he  would  never  more  see 
them.  He  forced  them  to  obey,  and  with  each  stroke, 
axes,  trees,  and  girls  rose  into  the  air,  and  the  girls 
became  stars.  Here,  obviously,  the  girls  were  of  the 
pine-tree  totem  clan,  and  dared  not  destroy  their  totem 
according  to  the  well-known  totem  law  forbidding  such 
an  act.  The  same  breach  of  totem  tabu  caused  a 
Malagasy  hero  to  lose  his  wife,  one  of  the  daughters 
of  the  sky,  by  his  relations  forcing  her  to  drink  toaka 
(rum),  which  she  had  told  him  would  inevitably  cause 
her  death.  A  Kafir  story  illustrates  another  custom 
current  among  them^ — that  of  the  absolute  seclusion 
of  a  girl  at  puberty  in  a  hut.  The  danger  of  leaving 
the  hut  is  shown  by  the  story  of  a  chiefs  daughter, 


BUITE  AND  HIS  WIFE  341 

who  left  it  to  bathe  in  a  stream  where  she  was  bitten 
by  a  snake,  and  covered  like  it  with  hideous  black 
blotches.  Lastly,  a  Fjort  example,  similar  to  the 
one  already  cited,  illustrates  actual  native  belief,  for 
as  Miss  Kingsley  says,  **  I  have  known  in  the  flesh 
several  ladies  whose  husbands  were  always  most 
anxious  that  they  should  not  hear  or  see  some  parti- 
cular thing  that  would  cause  them  to  disappear." 
The  story  illustrating  this  belief  tells  how  a  mysteri- 
ous woman  became  the  wife  of  Buite,  on  condition 
that  he  should  never  show  her  the  heads  of  fish 
caugfht  by  him.  Growing-  tired  of  this  injunction, 
he  sent  the  fish  home  with  their  heads,  but  the 
messenger  removed  them.  The  tenth  time  he  did 
not  do  so,  and  immediately  house  and  wife  dis- 
appeared, "and  Buite,  though  he  wept  much,  saw 
them  no  more."^ 

No  better  examples  of  folk-tales  arising  out  of 
existing  belief  or  custom,  and  invented  either  to 
explain,  or  else  to  support  such  custom  or  belief, 
could  be  wished  for.  ._When,  however,  such  customs 
and  beliefs  pass  away  and  the  stories  remain,-  some 
explanation  is  required.  Hence  we  learn  that  certain 
things  must  not  be  done  because  husband  or  wife  is 
under  enchantment,  or  he  or  she  belongs  to  a  super- 
natural race;  or,  again,  the  formulae  of  other  stories, 
like  those  of  the  Beast-marriage  group,  are  borrowed 
sometimes  to  explain  the  tabu,  sometimes  only  to 
heighten  the  effect  of  the  story.  All  this  is  the 
natural  outcome  of  the  need  of^intensifying  ideas 
which  have  become  unexplainable ;  they  have  passed 
to  the  region  of  the  mysterious,  where  nothing,  how- 
ever irrational,  can  ever  be  incredible.  But  withal, 
the  primitive  idea,  based  on  existing  custom,  is  never 
quite  lost  sight  of,  and  may  be  traced  back  to  its 
original  source. 

A  final  incident  of  the  Lost  Wife  cycle  is  found 

^  Parker,  p.  40.     F.L.J. ^  i.  204.     Theal,  p.  17.     Dennett,  p.  39. 


342  TABU  IN  FOLK-TALES 

in  that  voluminous  group,  with  variants  from  every 
part  of  the  world,  which  may  be  comprehensively 
called  the  Swan- Maiden  cycle.  (^The  motif  of  the 
stories  which  give  their  name  to  the  group  is  that  the 
hero  of  the  tale  sees  some  birds — swans,  geese,  ducks, 
flying  to  a  lake,  where,  taking  off  their  feather  dresses, 
they  become  beautiful  maidens.  Then,  stealing  up 
to  their  dresses,  he  possesses  himself  of  one  of  them. 
When  its  owner  comes  out  of  the  water,  she  is  forced 
to  follow  him,  because  he  has  got  her  feather  dress, 
and  to  become  his  wife.  But  in  many  stories  the  wife 
becomes  possessed  at  a  later  time  of  her  dress,  and  is 
thus  enabled  to  leave  her  husband,  who  sometimes 
does,  but  sometimes  does  not,  regain  her.  These 
incidents  occur  as  a  separate  story,  or  form  part  of 
the  fabric  of  a  longer  tale,  in  every  European  country  ; 
while  outside  Europe  there  are  Samoyede,  Kurdish, 
Indian,  Japanese,  Algerian,  Arab,  Swahili,  Arawa- 
kan,'  Red  Indian,  Eskimo,  and  Melanesian  versions.^ 
The  mythological  school  have  interpreted  the  story  in 
their  own  way  ;  it  belongs  in  reality  to  our  own  tabu 
class.  But  it  should  be  noted  here  that  the  story  is 
told  of  other  animals  than  birds :  in  a  Croatian 
story,  a  wolf  which  removes  its  skin ;  in  Guiana,  "y 
a  dog  whose  shape  a  woman  takes  by  putting 
on  a  dog's  skin;  in  Scandinavian  or  Celtic  tales 
there  is  frequently  a  preference  for  the  seal,  which, 
when  it  removes  its  skin,  becomes  a  beautiful 
woman.  ^ 

v^    Sometimes  the  story  is  told  of  supernatural  beings, 
or  of  women  of  another  and  ravishingly  beautiful  race. 

^  For  several  European  versions,  see  Hartland,  Science  of  Fairy 
Tales,  p.  255  seq.j  and  Baring-Gould,  Curious  Myths,  p.  561.  For  the 
others,  see  Castren,  p.  172.  Prym  and  Socin,  p.  51.  Mitford,  i.  161. 
Berenger-Feraud,  ii.  40.  Lane,  Arabian  Nights,  iii.  352.  Steere, 
p.  355.  Brett,  p.  29.  Legends  of  the  Wigwam,  p.  81.  Rink,  p.  145. 
Codrington,  p.  397. 

2  Wratislaw,  p.  290.  Brett,  p.  1 76.  See  p.  438  infra,  for  a  Melanesian 
parallel. 


THt:  SWAN-MAIDEN  343 

Here  almost  every  trace  of  the  animal  has  dis- 
appeared, save  that  these  supernatural  women  have 
wings  which  they  lay  aside,  and  the  possession  of 
which  affects  their  capture,  as  in  Greek  stories  of  the 
Nereids,  and  in  a  tale  from  the  New  Hebrides.  More 
usually,  the  capture  results  from  the  hero's  taking:  part 
of  the  woman's  clothing  when  she  is  bathing".  Of 
this  there  are  Irish,  Pomeranian,  Bulgarian,  Samo- 
yede,  Santal,  Celebes,  and  Red  Indian  variants,  while 
it  is  a  common  occurrence  in  Indian  M'drchen  and 
saga.  Here,  I  believe,  we  have  the  key  to  the  whole 
g"roup  of  stories,  and  the  foundation  on  which  one  and 
all  rest.  No  idea  is  more  common  in  primitive 
thought  than  this,  that  any  article  of  clothing- 
or  ornament,  or  the  name,  hair-clippings,  nail- 
parings,  etc.,  contains  all  the  virtue  of  its  owner,  and 
is  so  much  a  part  of  himself  that  whatever  is  done 
to  it  is  ipso  facto  done  to  him.  Hence  to  become 
possessed  of  it  is  to  have  the  owner  in  your  power 
and  at  your  mercy.  Students  of  primitive  magic  and 
of  witchcraft  know  how  universally  all  those  things  are 
used  to  work  harm  to  the  victim  or  to  gain  power 
over  him,  while  that  harm  or  submission  frequently 
occurs  when  the  victim  becomes  aware  of  what  is 
being  done.  The  underlying  belief  acts  like  a 
hypnotic  suggestion,  and  almost  automatically  pro- 
duces the  result.  A  single  instance  will  illustrate 
this.  A  healthy  native  girl  in  Australia  told  Mrs 
Parker  that  she  would  probably  die  soon,  because  a 
man  had  stolen  a  lock  of  her  hair,  and  was  now  on 
his  way  with  it  to  the  wizards]  Should  they  agree  to 
burn  it  magically,  she  would  inevitably  die.^  In  the 
same  way  many  primitive  peoples  believe  that  a 
woman's  love  may  be  gained  by  obtaining  part  of  her 

*  Parker,  2nd  series,  xiii.  Cf.  a  similar  instance  in  Brough 
Smyth,  Aborigines  of  Victoria^  i.  417,  where  a  girl  took  fever 
and  expected  to  die  as  her  stolen  and  buried  hair  rotted 
away. 


344  TABTT  IN  FOLK-TALES 

hair,  dress,  etc.,  and  saying  a  magical  charm  over  it.^ 
So,  ag"ain,  to  put  on  any  part  of  a  woman's  dress  is 
to  put  on  her  qualities,  and  especially  her  weakness. 
The  dress,  scanty  though  it  may  be,  is  in  fact  a  real 
part  of  one's  personality.  ^  This  may  be  illustrated  from 
a  Micmac  story,  in  which  Pulowech  the  Partridge  sees 
three  girls  bathing.  By  a  stratagem  he  captures  the 
hair-string  of  one  of  them,  whereupon  she  must 
follow  him.  So  in  the  Irish  tale  John  gets  Grey 
Norris's  daughter  in  his  power  by  stealing  her 
clothes  ;  the  Pomeranian  girl  is  caught  by  the  hunts- 
man taking  her  shift ;  a  Chinese  story  relates  that  a 
man  forced  a  women  to  become  his  wife  by  stealing 
her  clothes  ;  Abistanooch  captures  two  fairy  women  in 
an  Algonquin  story  by  taking  their  garments,  because 
he  knew  **  that  when  fairies  are  naked,  and  a  man  has 
their  clothes,  he  holds  them  at  his  mercy."  Best  of 
all  is  a  New  Guinea  story.  The  hero  falls  in  love 
with  a  beautiful  silvery  object — the  moon — which  he 
digs  out  of  the  earth.  It  bewails  its  untimely  birth, 
and  disappears.  He  follows  it,  and  discovers  a  lovely 
woman  bathing.  The  woman  is  the  moon,  and  the 
hero,  like  Abistanooch,  gets  her  in  his  power  by 
promptly  sitting  down  on  her  petticoat,  and  refusing 
to  budge  till  she  promises  to  marry  him.  She  tells 
him  it  is  impossible ;  she  is  a  spirit,  he  will  die  if  he 
touches  her;  in  any  case  his  death  is  certain 
because  he  has  touched  her  clothes.  However, 
taking  pity  on  her  persistent  Endymion,  as  he 
must  die  in  any  case,  she  agrees  to  marry  him  for 
one  day.  "So  one  day  more  am  I  deified!" — but 
immediately  after  he  died.  Now  the  moon  was 
meant   to   be   the  bride  of  the   sun,   but  he   grew 

^  Crawley,  p.  185. 

-  Hence  the  offering  of  part  of  a  patient's  dress  to  the  tree  by  a 
sacred  well ;  it  transfers  the  diseased  part  of  one's  personality  to 
the  tree,  or  is  a  link  between  the  spirit  of  the  tree  and  the  man 
himself. 


PETTICOAT  GOVERNMENT  Un 

jealous;  the  breach  between  them  widened,  and 
they  mutually  agreed  to  be  seen  as  little  as  possible 
togfether.^ 

In  these  tales  we  have  the  nearest  analogue  to 
the  primitive  form  of  the  story,  which  must  have 
pointed  out  the  danger  a  woman  incurred  in  allowing 
a  man  to  obtain  possession  of  her  scanty  clothing  or 
ornaments.  In  effect  there  is  something  sacred  in  a 
New  Guinea  woman's  petticoat,  as  Mr  Romilly 
informs  us,  and  a  boy  was  saved  from  death  by  the 
women  throwing  their  petticoats  over  him — not  a 
man  daring-  to  touch  him.  Petticoat  government! 
The  idea  is  also  illustrated  by  the  custom  of  the 
Kavirondo  (Bantu)  people.  There  the  women  wear 
only  a  tiny  apron  of  leather,  to  which,  however,  the 
g"reatest  importance  is  attached.  If  a  man  of  the 
same  tribe  should  even  touch  it,  although  he  is  her 
husband,  a  mortal  offence  is  committed  against  its 
owner,  which  must  be  expiated  by  sacrifice,  else  the 
woman  will  die.^  In  the  same  way  Andamanese 
women  will  not  renew  their  leaf-apron  in  presence  of 
each  other ;  it  is  always  done  privately,  and  a  like 
secrecy  is  also  practised  by  the  Indians  of  Guiana. 
In  all  these  cases  there  is  doubtless  a  mingling  of 
fear  lest  another  get  possession  of  the  g-arment  and 
so  work  harm  to  its  owner,  with  that  other  curious 
form  of  fear  underlying  savage  tabus  about  the 
sexual  organs.  These  tabus  work  in  two  ways : 
(i)  as  a  protection  of  those  sexual  centres  against 
.magical  or  other  influences ;  (2)  since  these  organs 
symbolise  life,  they  are,  therefore,  in  themselves  or  in 
their  representations,  forces  powerful  to  work  harm 
or  to  neutralise  it ;  hence,  they  must  be  covered  and 

^  Leland,  p.  281.  F.LJ.^  i.  320.  Hartland,  S.  of  F.T.^  p.  262. 
Dennys,  p.  140.  Leland,  op.  cit.^  p.  142.  In  stories  where  a  mermaid 
is  captured,  it  is  usually  by  stealing  her  pouch,  belt,  cap,  etc.  When 
she  recovers  this  she  returns  to  the  sea.     Romilly,  p.  134. 

2  Romilly,  p.  74.     Johnston,  ii.  728. 


346  TABU  IN  FOLK-TALES 

concealed.^  The  importance  attached  to  the  bride- 
gfroom's  unloosening-  the  bride's  girdle  at  marriage, 
among-  ancient  Greeks  and  many  other  peoples, 
seems  to  point  in  the  same  direction.  It  symbolised 
his  power  over  her.  Gradually,  however,  with  the 
weakening  of  such  beliefs  about  clothes,  the  stories 
were  told  only  of  supernatural  women ;  while,  once 
more,  this  tabu  group  was  influenced  by  the  totemistic 
Beast-marriage  cycle,  and  the  wife  was  regarded  as 
both  beast  and  human,  or  rather  something  more 
than  human.  She  had  the  power  of  taking  human 
form,  but  might  resume  her  animal  shape,  and  fre- 
quently did  so  through  her  husband's  carelessness, 
as  in  the  Melusina  cycle,  or  as  in  an  Ojibway  story  in 
which  the  beaver  wife  again  becomes  a  beaver  when 
her  husband  lets  her  foot  touch  water — her  native 
element.  This,  as  Mr  Lang  points  out,  is  an  exact 
parallel  to  the  Sanskrit  story  of  Bheki  the  Frog,  who, 
as  a  girl,  married  a  king.  He,  too,  lost  her  through 
breaking  the  condition  made,  that  she  should  never 
see  a  drop  of  water. ^  Already  many  primitive  races 
had  legends  of  men  mating  with  divine  women  who, 
being  divine,  could  only  remain  with  them  a  certain 
time.  It  is  extremely  likely  that  upon  such  legends 
were  now  grafted  the  folk-tales  of  human  wives  cap- 
tured by  retaining  their  garment.  The  reason  why  the 
divine  woman  became  the  wife  of  a  mortal  was  now 
made  clearer  ;  it  was  not  merely  her  love  for  him,  but 
because  he  had  forced  her  to  become  his  wife  through 
getting  possession  of  her  shining  raiment,  while  her 
repossession  of  that  raiment  supplied  a  stronger 
reason  for  her  leaving  him.  Such  a  legend  is  that 
of  the  goddess  Hapai,  who,  as  the  Maoris  say,  fell  in 

^  Cf.  the  curious  method  adopted  by  the  men  of  the  New  Hebrides 
(Somerville,  J.A.I.^  xxiii.  368).  On  the  whole  subject,  see  Him, 
Origin  of  Art,  p.  217  ;  Ellis,  Psychology  of  Sex,  ii.  7  seq. 

2  Kohl,  Kitchi  Garni,  p.  105.  Lang,  Custom  and  Myth,  p.  ^^.  Cf. 
the  Passamaquoddy  story  of  the  Partridge's  Wife,  p.  320  supra. 


TAB! TED  DRESS  AND  BEAST  SKIN  347 

love  with  Tawhaki,  but  always  left  him  before  dawn. 
But  her  love  for  him  made  her  stay,  and  then  the 
angfry  gods  carried  her  back  to  heaven,  where  the 
brave  Tawhaki  recovered  her,  and  became  a  gfod.^ 
But  when  the  incidents  of  the  Beast-marriage 
group  were  attracted  into  this  group,  the  totemistic 
origin  had  been  long  forgotten,  and  the  animal  bride 
was  only  an  animal  when  she  donned  her  animal 
skin.  This  is  the  real  origin  of  the  Swan-maiden 
group — the  beast-skin  of  the  Beast-marriage  cycle 
has  replaced  the  tabued  garment  of  the  group  which 
told  the  danger  women  incurred  through  letting  a 
man  steal  that  garment.  And  as  in  these  stories 
the  woman  regained  her  freedom  by  recovering  her 
garment,  so  when  the  animal-wife  sees  her  feather- 
dress  or  wings  by  accident,  the  old  animal  nature 
returns  to  her,  she  is  tempted  to  put  them  on  or 
strongly  desires  to  do  so,  and  no  sooner  are  they 
donned  than  she  must  quit  human  society.  Thus 
two  quite  separate  story  groups  have  coalesced  as 
neatly  as  do  the  two  natures,  animal  and  human,  in 
the  lovely  and  coveted  Swan-maiden.  The  story,  of 
course,  was  told  of  any  animal ;  the  popularity  of  the 
swan  may  be  regarded  as  an  example  of  the  survival 
of  the  fittest.  But  in  some  stories  of  this  group,  as 
in  the  later  stories  of  the  Beast-marriage  cycle,  the 
tabu  on  the  dress  does  not  appear,  though  so  long 
as  the  dress  exists  the  bride  cannot  be  freed  from  her 
animal  nature.  Unlike  the  Swan-maiden,  she  is  not 
tempted  to  retain  or  regain  her  animal  form,  though 
this  idea  recurs  in  many  Swan-maiden  stories  where 
the  lost  wife  is  finally  restored  to  her  husband.  The 
stories  to  which  I  have  referred  tell  how  the  woman 
has  an  animal  form  by  enchantment,  but  is  released 
from  it  by  her  lover  s  burning  her  animal  skin.  As  we 
have  seen,  this  is  the  motif  of  many  stories  in  the 
Beast-marriage  group,  while  it  has  its  concomitant 

^  Clarke,  p.  147, 


348  TABU  IN  FOI.K-TALES 

in  the  occasional  tabu  stories  where  the  wife  will 
regain  her  human  shape  if  her  husband  observes 
certain  conditions.^ 

In  all  stories  where  the  animal  skin  may  be  set 
aside,  as  in  many  others,  Red  Indian,  Chinese,  etc., 
where  by  merely  putting  on  an  animal's  skin  or  bird's 
wings  a  temporary  transformation  is  effected,'^  this 
idea  may  have  been  suggested  by  one  particular 
aspect  of  Totemism  as  well  as  by  mimetic  magic.  For 
in  certain  sacred  dances,  by  putting  on  the  skin  of 
the  totemic  animal,  the  dancers  represented  it,  and  so 
assimilated  its  qualities,  and  were  actually  identified 
with  it.  By  becoming  like  the  totem  animal,  they 
became  one  with  it.  Likeness  was  merged  into 
identity. 

Or,  again,  where  a  divinity  had  a  totem  origin, 
and  its  sacred  animal  representative  was  sacrificed  to 
it,  the  priest  or  sacrificer  frequently  wore  its  skin, 
thus  identifying  himself  with  the  divinity  and  the 
victim.  Assyrian,  Egyptian,  Greek,  Roman,  and 
Mexican  examples  show  the  wide  range  of  this 
practice.^      Frequently,  too,  for  purposes  of  divina- 

^  The  skin  episode  takes  a  curious  form  in  a  story  from  West 
Africa.  A  king's  daughter  called  Ilambe  wished  a  husband  different 
from  other  women's,  and  by  her  magic  power  changed  a  mbinde 
(wild  goat)  into  a  handsome  youth,  after  she  had  skinned  the  animal. 
She  burned  the  skin,  preserving  the  ash.  Some  time  after,  the 
husband  paid  marked  attentions  to  another  woman.  His  wife  took 
a  little  of  the  ash  and  rubbed  it  on  his  feet,  which  turned  to  hoofs. 
He  pleaded  with  her,  and  she  restored  them  as  before.  But  again 
he  roused  her  jealousy,  and  again  the  same  warning  was  given  him. 
Finally,  when  he  had  sinned  a  third  time,  she  took  the  whole  of  the 
ash  and,  having  bade  the  woman  prepare  for  his  coming,  threw  it 
over  her  husband,  who  turned  into  a  mbinde  again  and  bounded  off 
into  the  forest.  Here  the  underlying  idea  is  still  the  same  ;  so  long  as 
any  part  of  the  animal  remains  the  animal  nature  will  return  when 
the  transformed  person  is  brought  in  contact  with  it. — Nassau,  p.  346. 

2  Cf.  Petitot,  p.  174.  Giles,  i.  278.  Helpful  Animals  chapter, 
passim. 

^  Robertson  Smith,  Religion  of  Semites^  pp.  274,  277,  292,  495. 
Cf.  Lobeck's  Aglaophamus. 


THE  PRIMITIVE  xVOVELIST  349 

tion,  the  seer  was  wrapped  up  in  an  animal's  skin 
and  left  in  a  solitary  place.  This  was  a  Celtic 
practice,  pre-  and  post-Christian,  and  occurred  also 
among-  the  Greeks  and  Romans.l..^,._< 

These  various  uses  of  the  animalT  skin  suggest 
that  they  may  readily  have  given  rise  to  the  folk-tale 
incident  of  the  possibility  of  assuming-  the  animal's 
shape  and  nature  by  donning  its  skin.  Meanwhile 
we  sum  up  the  results  of  our  investigation  of  the 
marriage  tabu  incident  in  Mr  Jevon's  words  :  **The 
primitive  public  for  whom  the  fairy  tales  in  question 
were  composed,  found  the  incident  of  the  violated 
tabu  as  thrilling  and  as  full  of  'actuality'  as  a 
modern  reader  finds  the  last  sensational  novel."  "^ 

1  Martin,  Western  Isles,  p.  iii.     Pausanias,  i.  34.     Virgil,  ^neid, 
vii.  85  ;  viii.  281. 

^  Jevons'  Plutarch's  Romane  Questions,  Intro.,  Ixxvii. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE  CLEVER  YOUNGEST    SON 

In  reading  any  collection  of  folk- tales,  one  is  struck 
by  the  frequency  with  which  they  relate  the 
adventures  of  three  sons  or  daughters,  one  of  whom, 
the  youngest,  is  invariably  the  most  fortunate.  Thus 
Mr  Jones's  collection  of  fifty-three  Magyar  tales 
contains  twenty-one  dealing  with  the  fortunes  of  a 
youngest  son,  and  in  other  collections  the  same  large 
proportion  is  met  with.  Many  tales,  Russian,  Basque, 
Celtic,  etc.,  represent  the  youngest  son  as  a  simpleton, 
who,  nevertheless,  comes  to  honour  and  fortune. 
It  is  obvious  that  all  this  has  not  happened  by  chance, 
but  has  originated  out  of  some  definite  cause.  Of 
the  numerous  story  cycles  in  which  the  formula  occurs, 
we  can  only  consider  a  few,  but  some  of  these  may 
hint  at  the  solution  of  the  problem  of.  the  favour  paid 
to  the  youngest  son  of  the  family.  Certain  of  these 
cycles  show  only  the  superiority  of  the  young  hero  or 
heroine  ;  others  appeal  more  directly  to  our  sympathy 
by  showing  him  as  the  victim  of  adverse  circum- 
stances ;  others  do  so  still  more  by  setting  forth  the 
callous  wickedness  of  the  elder  sisters  or  brothers,  "j 

(i)  The  first  cycle  we  shall  call  that  of  the 
Treacherous  Brothers,  and  it  may  be  illustrated  by  a 
Russian  story.  A  monster  called  a  norka  ravaged 
a  king's  deer-park.     The  two  elder  sons  watched  for 

350 


THE  TREACHEROUS  BROTHERS  361 

it,  but  drank  too  much  vodka ;  the  youngest,  a 
simpleton,  wounded  the  norka,  and  followed  it  to  the 
underworld,  his  brothers  refusing  to  descend  with 
him.  There  he  saw  the  norka's  three  beautiful 
sisters,  who  gave  him  the  water  of  strength  and  a 
sword  of  steel.  He  cut  off  the  monster  s  head,  and 
then  attached  the  maidens  one  by  one  to  a  rope. 
His  brothers  pulled  them  up  to  earth  and  then 
deserted  him.  He  wandered  about  for  some  time 
and  was  delivered  by  a  bird,  grateful  for  his 
kindness  to  her  young  ones.  He  now  became  a 
tailor's  assistant.  Meanwhile  his  brothers  were 
about  to  marry  the  girls,  who  refused  to  wed  until 
replicas  of  their  underworld  garments  had  been 
made  them.  No  one  could  do  this ;  the  hero, 
however,  had  brought  away  the  dresses  with  him, 
and  now  gave  them  to  his  master  to  carry  to  the 
king.  He  supplied  them  with  shoes  in  the  same 
way.  The  sisters  were  naturally  much  astonished, 
but  the  youngest  at  last  discovered  the  hero,  who 
married  all  three,  the  elder  brothers  being  duly 
punished.^ 

There  are  many  variants  of  this  story,  but  usually 
the  introduction  relates  how  the  brothers  go  to  seek 
their  sister  or  mother,  abducted  by  a  monster.  The 
youngest  is  the  rescuer,  and  also  liberates  three 
princesses,  prisoners  of  the  monster.  They  will  not 
marry  till  certain  magical  objects  are  brought  them 
by  the  treacherous  brothers ;  these  the  hero  obtains 
by  the  aid  of  animals  whom  he  has  helped  ;  sometimes, 
as  in  the  Russian  story,  he  has  brought  these  objects 
with  him.  There  are  several  Russian  variants  of 
this  type,  as  well  as  Serbian,  Greek,  Sicilian,  Spanish 
(in  this  three  princesses  are  shut  up  by  their  father, 
and  one  of  them  promised  in  marriage  to  whomsoever 
sets  them  free),  Celtic,  and  Syriac.     In  this  last  the 

^  Ralston,   p.   73 ;   cf.   p.    100.      For  the  grateful  bird   incident, 
see  p.  239. 


352  THE  CLEVER  YOUNGEST  SON 

young  prince's  brother  and  uncle  behave  in  the  same 
treacherous  manner,  while  in  a  Kabyle  variant  the 
brothers  are  sons  by  different  wives.  ^ 

A  North  German  story  opens  with  the  watching 
formula,  and  the  youngest  brother  obtains  the  colt, 
which  is  the  thief  The  story  then  glides  into  the 
formula  of  some  variants  of  group  eleven,  the  colt 
climbing  a  glass  mountain,  where  the  hero  finds  the 
enchanted  princess.  In  a  Norse  variant  he  obtains 
three  horses  and  as  many  suits  of  armour  as  the 
result  of  his  watch,  and  becomes  the  unknown  knight 
whose  feats  of  strength  win  the  bride  whom  his 
brothers,  who  despised  him  as  Boots,  fail  to  win. 
There  is  a  group  of  tales  in  which  Dove-maidens  are 
the  thieves,  and  the  hero  captures  one  which  becomes 
his  bride.  She  has  been  enchanted  by  a  troll,  and 
the  hero's  after-adventures  describe  how  he  released 
her  from  the  enchantment.  A  Swahili  story  also 
introduces  the  watching  episode.  Here,  as  in  the 
Malagasy  tale  of  group  two,  the  youngest  son  is 
disliked  by  his  father,  because  he  is  always  in  the 
kitchen.  But  he  succeeds  in  discovering  the  thief 
who  steals  ►his  father's  dates,  when  everyone  else  fails. 
It  is  a  bird  which  promises  to  help  him  if  he  releases 
it.  He  agrees,  and  later  captures  a  monster,  in  trying 
to  kill  which  three  of  his  brothers  have  been  slain. 
His  father  made  him  his  heir  after  getting  the  willing 
consent  of  the  remaining  brothers.^ 

^  Dietrich,  No.  5. — Hero's  mother  and  three  princesses  rescued. 
Mijatovich,  p.  31. — The  brothers,  on  returning,  make  a  shepherd 
personate  the  hero  unsuccessfully.  Hahn,  Nos.  26,  70.  Crane,  p. 
36.  Romancero  Generale^  No.  1263.  Campbell,  iii.  9.  Prym  und 
Socin,  No.  46.  Riviere,  p.  235.  In  some  versions  these  incidents 
form  a  sequel  to  the  Bear's  Son  cycle,  and  the  Companions,  not  the 
brothers,  of  the  hero  treat  him  in  this  way.  For  the  pit  incident,  cf, 
the  desertion  of  Joseph. 

2  Thorpe,  Y.T.S.,  p.  456.  Dasent,  89.  Thorpe,  p.  158  (Swedish, 
Danish,  German,  and  Slav  variants).  Steere,  p.  199.  Similar  stories 
must  have  been  current  in  ancient  Peru, 


THE  QUEST  353 

(2)  In  studying:  the  Water  of  Life  incident,  we 
have  seen  how  frequently  it  or  some  other  treasure  is 
the  object  of  a  quest  by  a  king  s  three  sons,  of  whom 
the  youngest  alone  is  successful.  With  an  immense 
variety  of  detail,  the  main  outlines  of  this  story,  as 
found  in  every  European  country,  are  these.  The 
elder  brothers  refuse  help  at  the  outset  to  some  man 
or  animal,  and  soon  after  waste  their  substance  in 
riotous  living.  Meanwhile  the  despised  youngest 
son,  who  is  sometimes  a  hunchback,  obtains  a 
reluctant  permission  to  go  on  the  quest.  He  pays 
his  brothers'  debts,  rescues  a  princess  from  an  ogre, 
and  obtains  the  object  of  his  quest.  Returning,  he 
again  helps  his  brothers,  who  reward  him  by  throwing 
him  into  a  well  and  go  off  with  princess  and  treasure. 
In  some  cases  its  virtue  ceases,  but  it  resumes  its 
power  as  soon  as  the  hero,  rescued  by  the  animal  to 
whom  he  had  given  help,  appears  at  the  palace.  After 
this  he  marries  the  princess,  and  his  brothers  are 
punished.  In  this  form,  with  greater  or  less  modi- 
fication of  detail,  the  story  is  found  in  Ireland, 
Scotland,  Norway,  Bohemia,  Wallachia,  Russia, 
Germany,  Transylvania,  Sweden,  Austria,  Poland, 
Sicily,  France,  Lithuania,  and  among  the  Magyars 
and  Basques.^ 

In  Hindu  variants  the  seekers  are  usually  sons  of 
different  mothers.     Frequently  the  youngest  son  has 


one  version  told  by  Cieza  de  Leon,  jealous  of  their  brother,  shut  him 
up  in  a  hole  in  the  ground,  whence  he  emerged  with  wings,  as  Manco 
Capac,  the  ancestor  of  the  Incas,  and  turned  the  treacherous  brothers 
into  stone. — Second  Part  of  the  Chronicles  of  Peru^  p.  5. 

^  Kennedy,  ii.  47.  Cf.  a  curious  Swedish  version,  where  the  magic 
articles  are  in  possession  of  a  loathsome  toad  whose  servant  the  hero 
becomes.  In  the  sequel  she  turns  out  to  be  an  enchanted  princess 
Thorpe,  Y.T.S.^  p.  226.  Campbell,  i.  168.  Asbjoemsen,  p.  364 
Chodzko,  p.  285.  Schott,  No.  26.  Ralston,  p.  286.  Grimm,  No.  57 
Haltrich,  No.  7.  Cavallius,  No.  9.  Vernaleken,  Nos.  52,  53, 
Toeppen,  154.  Gonzenbach,  No.  64.  Schleicher,  26.  Cosquin,  i.  208 
Jones,  p.  288  ;  see  p.  61.     Webster,  p.  180. 

Z 


354  THE  CLEVER  YOUNGEST  SON 

been  banished  with  his  mother,  but  accompanies  his 
brothers  in  the  quest,  and  in  the  sequel  becomes  his 
father's  favourite  son.^  A  Malagasy  tale  resembles 
this  formula.  Isilakoloma,  who  is  half  wood,  is 
disinherited  by  his  brother's  advice,  but  his  mother 
shares  his  banishment.  Among  the  treasures  which 
are  sought  are  three  witches,  one  of  whom  reveals  to 
the  king  the  brothers' jealousy,  whereupon  Isilakoloma 
is  made  heir  and  the  brothers  become  his  slaves.^  A 
Kirghiz  poem  comes  nearer  to  the  European  variants  ; 
the  sons  seek  a  magic  nightingale,  the  youngest, 
Haemra,  marries  a  peri,  and  with  her  aid  finds  it. 
He  pays  his  brothers'  debts ;  they  blind  him  and 
throw  him  into  a  well.  The  bird  reveals  all  to  their 
father  ;  unfortunately  the  rest  is  silence.^ 

(3)  The  next  group  also  involves  a  quest,  but 
differs  considerably  from  the  former.  The  introduc- 
tion to  the  story  varies  :  frequently  it  takes  the  form 
found  in  the  Scots  tale  of  Mally  Whuppie,  intro- 
ducing three  sisters  who  are  sent  from  home.  They 
come  to  a  giant's  house,  and  at  night  Mally  notices 
that  the  giant  puts  straw  ropes  round  their  necks,  but 
gold  necklaces  round  his  daughters'  necks,  and  she 
wisely  exchanges  these  when  all  are  asleep,  with  the 
result  that  he  kills  his  own  daughters.  This  is,  of 
course,  the  story  of  Hop  o'  my  Thumb.  They  next 
come  to  a  king's  palace,  and  on  telling  the  story  the 
king  says,  *'  Mally,  you  are  clever ;  steal  the  giant's 
sword,  and  I'll  marry  your  eldest  sister  to  my  eldest 
son."  With  great  difficulty  Mally  succeeds.  She  is 
then  sent  for  his  pillow,  lastly  for  his  ring,  her  reward 
to  be  marriage  to  the  youngest  prince.  The  giant  cap- 
tures her ;  she  persuades  his  wife  to  take  her  place, 
escapes  with  the  ring,  and  is  duly  married.*    This 

1  Ind.  Ant.,  1872,  p.  115  ;  1875,  p.  54. 

2  F.L.J.,  ii.  129.  3  Radloff,  iii.  535. 
*  Jacobs,  p.  125  ;  cf.  p.  354  supra. 


THE  JEALOUS  BROTHERS  355 

story  is  obviously  based  on  others  in  which  three 
brothers  figure,  who,  in  the  commoner  version,  after  the 
same  or  some  other  introduction,  take  service  with 
the  king-.  The  elder  brothers,  as  in  the  Esthonian 
version,  are  jealous  of  the  hero,  and  tell  the  king  how 
he  has  boasted  of  his  prowess,  whereupon  the  king 
sends  him  for  the  ogre's  treasures.^  The  brothers 
intend  that  he  should  perish  in  the  attempt.  Un- 
luckily for  them,  he  succeeds,  and  it  is  they  who 
perish,  or,  in  other  cases,  have  to  remain  in  the  very 
subordinate  positions  in  which  they  find  themselves, 
while  the  hero  becomes  heir  to  the  throne,  and 
marries  the  king's  daughter.  Norse,  Swedish,  Greek, 
Sicilian,  and  Italian  variants  exist ;  in  the  last  the 
hero  is  the  youngest  of  thirteen  brothers.^ 

In  Eastern  and  in  some  European  variants 
jealous  courtiers  frequently  replace  the  elder  brothers,^ 
but  parallels  to  the  European  version  exist.  Persian 
and  Turkish  versions  contain  incidents  from  the 
Quest  cycle.  Three  brothers  receive  their  shares  of 
their  possessions  and  go  abroad.  The  youngest 
helps  his  brothers  over  and  over  again,  when  they 
have  squandered  their  wealth.  They  then  set  him 
adrift  in  a  boat  (Persian)  or  (Turkish)  accuse  him 
wrongfully  to  the  sultan,  who  has  him  cast  into  a  pit. 
The  Persian  version  tells  how  jealous  courtiers 
advised  that  he  should  be  sent  to  seek  for  impossible 
objects ;  the  Turkish  makes  him  marry  a  princess, 
obtain  immense  wealth,  and  change  his  treacherous 
brothers  into  dogs.*    A  variant  current  among  the 

1  Kirby,  i.  187. 

'^  Thorpe,  Y.T.S.^  p.  253.  7^/^.,  p.  142.  Geldart,  "Constantes  and 
the  Dragon."  Gonzenbach,  No.  83.  Crane,  p.  90.  In  an  incomplete 
Scots  version  the  two  brothers  drop  out  of  the  story,  but  the  hero's 
adventures  are  the  same.  F.LJ.^  iii.  270.  For  a  Magyar  version, 
see  p.  242. 

3  For  a  Berber  version  with  parallels,  see  Basset,  No.  27  and  notes. 
Cf.  Cosquin,  ii.  90.  The  European  stories  are  usually  of  the  Impostor 
cycle  referred  to  on  p.  57.  ^  Clouston,  E.R.,  p.  147,  493- 


356  THE  CLEVER  YOUNGEST  SON 

Avars  of  the  Caucasus  resembles  the  Scots  story  in 
the  introduction,  but  has  three  brothers,  the  two 
elder  of  whom  are  very  jealous  of  Tchilbik,  the 
young-est,  who  has  to  bringf  the  ogress's  magical  bed- 
cover, copper,  she-g-oat,  and  finally  the  ogress  herself, 
after  which  he  marries  the  king's  daughter.^  In  an 
Arab  tale  we  have  three  brothers  searching  for  a 
nightingale  which  petrifies  all  who  come  near  it. 
The  two  eldest  fail,  the  youngest  succeeds,  and 
restores  them  and  many  others  to  life.  His  jealous 
brothers  fling  him  into  a  well,  and  take  the  glory  of 
the  deed,  but  the  bird,  having  given  him  a  magic  ring, 
causes  his  escape,  and  he  makes  good  his  claim. ^ 

(4)  In  the  second  cycle  it  has  been  seen  how  the 
elder  brothers  refuse  help  at  the  outset  to  some 
creature  who  asks  it.  This  incident  of  the  churlish- 
ness of  the  elder  brothers  is  still  more  strongly 
marked  in  some  stories,  and  leads  directly  to  their 
hurt.  A  Basque  hero,  who  rescued  a  princess  from  a 
seven-headed  serpent,  had  already  overcome  a  fright- 
ful bear  which  had  killed  his  brothers.  They  had 
refused  a  piece  of  cake  to  a  wise- woman  who  asked 
it ;  the  youngest  gave  it, .  and  obtained  a  magic  rod 
by  which  alone  the  bear  could  be  killed.^  A  Servian 
story  illustrates  the  natural  goodness  of  the  youngest 
son,  quite  in  the  goody-goody  story-book  manner. 
Three  brothers  each  give  an  angel,  sent  to  provide 
them  with  better  food,  some  pears.  He  then  appears 
as  a  monk,  and  asks  them  to  choose  whatever  they 
please.  The  eldest  chooses  that  a  river  should 
become  wine ;  the  second  that  doves  should  become 
sheep ;  the  third  asks  for  a  pure  Christian  wife.  She 
is  procured  with  difficulty.  The  elder  brothers 
prosper;    the  youngest  remains  poor.      The    angel 

^  Schiefner,  No.  3. 

2  Burton,  Supp.  Nights^  iv.  244. 

^  Webster,  p.  33. 


ClNDEiRELLA  357 

tests  all  three;  the  first  two  refuse  his  modest 
requests,  and  lose  all ;  the  third  gives  him  of  his 
poverty,  and  is  rewarded  with  a  royal  palace.^ 
Christian  conceptions  have  obviously  coloured  this 
tale.  In  Malagasy  stories  the  incident  of  the 
churlish  brothers  is  a  favourite  one.  I  have  already 
referred  to  this ;  the  story  of  The  Seven  Brothers 
is  another  excellent  instance.  Seven  brothers  were 
suitors  for  one  grirl.  Six  refused  aid  to  certain 
animals,  insulting^  them  at  the  same  time.  They 
failed  in  performing"  the  tasks  set  them  by  the  girFs 
father,  and  returned  home  disconsolate.  The 
youngest  now  went,  and  on  the  way  gave  honey  to 
the  wasp  and  fly,  rice  to  the  lark,  manioc  to  the  pig, 
and  rice  to  the  grebe.  These  animals  assist  him  in 
the  tasks,  and  he  wins  the  girl.  The  story  goes  on 
to  relate  how,  when  his  child  was  born,  the  brothers 
lowered  the  hero  into  a  caiman's  den,  from  which  he 
escaped  with  its  treasure,  thus  becoming  rich  while 
his  brothers  were  impoverished.^ 

(5)  In  this  and  the  next  cycle  we  have  mainly 
three  sisters  instead  of  three  brothers,  but  the 
rationale  of  the  stories  is  precisely  the  same.  I  shall 
here  refer  to  the  Cinderella  group,  where  the 
commoner  versions  make  the  despised  girl  the  step- 
sister of  the  others.  Other  versions,  which  connect 
the  Cinderella  group  with  the  next,  or  Jealous  Sisters 
cycle,  make  the  three  girls  daughters  of  one  mother. 
The  Greek  variant  introduces  a  unique  cannibalistic 
episode.  The  mother  prefers  her  youngest  daughter  ; 
the  two  elder  daughters  thereupon  kill  and  eat  their 
mother.  When  the  heroine  is  married  to  the  prince, 
and  her  child  is  born,  they  stick  a  needle  into  her 
head  and  bury  her,  one  of  them,  Maro,  now  taking 

^  Mijatovich,  p.  74. 

2  Ferrand,  p.  102.     Cf.  p.  243  j  and  for  other  instances,  F.L.J.^  1883, 
1884. 


368  THE  CLEVER  YOUNGEST  SON 

her  place.  A  bird  emerges  from  the  grave  and  taunts 
the  impostor,  who  asks  the  husband  to  shoot  it ;  three 
drops  of  blood  fall ;  from  them  an  apple-tree  springs  up, 
as  in  the  Egyptian  Two  Brothers  cycle.  In  one  of 
the  apples  the  true  bride  is  found,  and  Maro  is  ground 
to  powder.^  An  Albanian  story  takes  another  form. 
Fatima  is  hated  by  her  sisters,  because  the  sun  says 
she  is  the  prettiest.  To  get  rid  of  her  they  desert  her 
in  a  forest  where  forty  thieves  find  her,  and  are  so 
struck  by  her  beauty  that  they  make  her  their 
cook.  The  sisters  now  send  her  various  articles  in 
succession  which  cause  her  death,  but  she  is  restored 
to  life  on  their  removal  from  her  body.  Lastly,  they 
send  her  a  ring,  and  this  time,  as  the  robbers  do  not 
see  it,  she  remains  dead,  and  her  coffin  in  placed  on  a 
tree.  A  king  passing  that  way  discovers  it,  and 
carries  it  off  In  time  Fatima  becomes  thinner;  the 
ring  drops  off;  life  is  restored,  and  the  king  marries 
her.^  This  tale  is  found  in  Madagascar,  but  there 
the  girl  dreams  that  the  son  of  the  sun  wishes  to 
marry  her  because  she  is  so  beautiful.  The  sisters 
ask  everyone  if  she  is  pretty,  and  everywhere  find  the 
same  opinion.  At  last,  to  compass  her  death  they 
bid  her  gather  vegetables  from  the  monster  Itri- 
mobe's  garden.  She  is  caught,  and  he  intends  to  eat 
her,  but  she  escapes,  and  returning  home  becomes  her 
parents'  pet,  the  other  sisters  being  disowned.^ 

In  a  Micmac  story  the  youngest  of  three  sisters 
is  cruelly  treated  by  the  others.  In  the  same  village 
lives  an  invisible  being  who  will  marry  the  first  girl 
who  can  see  him.  The  two  sisters  try  their  luck 
along  with   everyone    else,   but    signally  fail.      The 

1  Garnett,  ii.  ii6.  In  the  usual  cannibalistic  Cinderella  stories  the 
mother  is  changed  into  a  cow  and  then  eaten,  see  p.  297. 

2  Dozon,  p.  I.  Note  the  sepulture  on  a  tree — a  genuine  savage 
custom.  Grimm's  story  of  Little  Snow  White  is  a  variant  of  this,  see 
chap,  ii.,  p.  351. 

^  F.L.J.^  i.  223.     For  the  pursuit  by  the  monster,  see  p.  177. 


THE  JEALOUS  SISTERS  359 

youngfest  then  begged  some  clothes  and,  in  spite  of 
taunts  and  jeers,  went  off  to  the  invisible  man's  hut. 
She  alone  saw  him,  and  became  the  most  beautiful 
g-irl  in  the  world  and  the  wife  of  the  Invisible  One 
whose  sledstring"  was  the  rainbow  and  his  bowstring 
the  milky  way.^ 

The  usual  Cinderella  tale  occurs  with  the  three 
sister  formula  in  Malagasy  tradition,  and  is  of  ancient 
date.  The  sisters  set  out  to  seek  the  hoped-for  bride- 
groom ;  the  pretty  youngest  girl  is  ill-treated  by  the 
others,  and  made  their  slave.  But  three  times  running 
a  rat  gives  her  exquisite  clothes,  and  on  the  third 
evening,  golden  slippers,  one  of  which  she  leaves 
behind.  By  this  means  she  is  discovered  ;  her  sisters 
are  chased  away,  and  turn  into  lizards.^ 

(6)  Of  this,  the  Jealous  Sisters  cycle,  there  are 
three  groups.  The  first  may  be  represented  by  a 
Sicilian  story.  A  king's  son  overheard  three  sisters 
talking.  "  If  I  married  the  prince,"  said  the  first, 
*'  I  would  satisfy  a  whole  regiment  with  four  g-rani  of 
bread."  "And  I,"  said  the  second,  "would  quench 
their  thirst  with  a  single  glass  of  wine."  "As 
for  me,"  said  the  youngest,  "  I  would  give  him  two 
children,  a  boy  with  a  golden  apple  in  his  hand,  and 
a  girl  with  a  golden  star  on  her  forehead."  The 
prince  thereupon  married  the  youngest,  and  during 
his  absence  she  gave  birth  to  children  such  as  those 
she  had  described.  Her  jealous  sisters  wrote  to  the 
prince  saying  she  had  borne  a  dog  and  a  cat.  He 
replied  that  they  must  be  drowned,  and  the  children 
were  thrown  into  the  sea.  Thence  they  were  rescued 
and,  after  many  adventures  restored  to  their  mother, 
when  her  sisters  were  duly  punished.^    There  are 

^  Leland,  A.L.^  p.  303,  who  thinks  a  local  solar  myth  has  been 
welded  with  a  French-Canadian  tale.     Why  a  solar  myth .? 
•^  Ferrand,  p.  123. 
^  Crane,  p.  17. 


360  THE  CLEVER  YOUNGEST  SON 

Catalanian,  German,  Tyrolese,  Italian,  Georgian, 
Albanian,  Avar,  and  Arab  versions  of  this  story ;  in 
the  four  last  the  prince  marries  all  the  sisters,  but 
the  elder  ones  cannot  keep  their  promise.^  In  others, 
Breton,  Hungfarian,  and  Serbian,  the  elder  sisters  say 
they  would  like  to  marry  the  king's  servants ;  the 
youngest  says  she  wishes  to  marry  the  prince,  and 
will  bring  him  wonderful  children.^  Italian,  Armenian, 
Westphalian,  Basque,  and  Icelandic  stories  omit  the 
last  condition,  but  the  girl  does  give  birth  to  wonderful 
children.^  Usually  the  poor  wife  is  set  outside  the 
palace  to  be  trampled  and  spit  upon,  because  she  has 
not  kept  her  promise  and  has  given  birth  to  animals, 
puppies  or  kittens.  In  an  Esthonian  variant  the 
introduction  is  different,  and  there  is  only  one  sister, 
whom  the  king  marries  after  the  heroine  has  been 
thrown  with  one  of  her  children  into  the  sea.  By 
this  child's  means  the  sister's  wickedness  is  discovered, 
and  wife  and  children  are  all  restored.*  Usually  the 
fate  of  the  jealous  sisters  is  horrible.  This  is  one  of  the 
most  popular  stories  in  the  whole  range  of  folk-tales, 
but  sometimes  the  heroine  is  thus  maltreated,  not  by 
sisters,  but  by  her  jealous  friends,  by  the  queen- 
mother,  or  in  Eastern,  Malagasy,  and  Basuto  stories, 
by  the  other  wives,  though  in  some  cases  these  are 
her  own  sisters.  I  quote  the  Basuto  tale,  which  M. 
Jacottet  thinks  may  be  original.  A  chief  had  on  his 
breast  the  image  of  the  full  moon,  and  one  day 
announced  to  his  wives  that  the  first  would  have  a 
son  similarly  marked,  and  the  others  children  with 

^  Maspons,  p.  38.  Proehle,  i.  No.  3.  Zingerle,  ii.  157.  Finamore, 
No.  39.  Wardrop,  p.  5.  Dozon,  p.  7.  Schiefner,  No.  12.  Cosquin, 
i.  196. 

2  Melusine,  1877,  p.  206.  Jones,  p.  11.  Gaal,  p.  390.  Jagitch, 
No.  25. 

3  Finamore,  No.  55.  Garnett,  ii,  453.  Grimm,  No.  96.  Webster, 
p.  176.     Arnason,  p.  427. 

*  Kirby,  ii.  10.  For  the  children's  adventures  in  stories  of  this 
cycle,  see  p.  59  supra^  "  The  Water  of  Life." 


A  BASUTO  TALE  361 

crescent  moons  or  stars.  The  jealous  second  wife 
makes  an  old  woman  place  a  puppy  beside  the 
mother  of  the  boy  with  the  moon ;  he  is  thrown 
aside,  but  ants  take  care  of  him.  One  day  he  is  seen 
by  this  wife,  and  she,  pretending-  illness,  tells  her 
husband  that  the  hut  where  the  ants  are  must  be 
burned  down,  as  the  ants  cause  her  illness.  This  is 
done,  but  the  ants  have  already  carried  off  the  child 
to  an  ox.  He,  in  turn,  is  killed,  as  are  the  crabs  to 
whom  he  has  handed  on  the  child.  They  give  him 
to  some  traders,  one  of  whom  tells  the  chief  All  is 
then  discovered ;  the  mother,  who  has  become  the 
second  wife's  servant,  is  reinstated,  and  the  jealous 
woman  banished.  This  story  has  affinities  with  the 
cycle  in  which  a  jealous  wife  causes  the  death  of 
children,  throughout  their  different  transformations.^ 
^Some  tales  of  the  Beauty  and  Beast  or  Cupid  and 
Psyche  group  make  the  breach  of  tabu  by  which  the 
wife  loses  her  husband  result  directly  from  the 
malicious  advice  given  her  by  the  jealous  elder  sisters, 
while  in  these  and  in  the  Frog  Bridegroom  group,  it 
is  always  the  youngest  of  three_^isters  who  is 
preferred  by  the  mysterious  suitor.^    In  the  classical 

^  Jacottet,  p.  226.  The  animal-birth  slander  appears  in  another 
cycle  discussed  in  the  chapter  on  "The  Water  of  Life,"  p.  59.  A 
West  African  tale  bears  a  certain  resemblance  to  these  Jealous 
Sister  stories.  Several  wives  of  a  king  eat  the  "medicine"  of 
fertility  which  he  has  procured  them,  including  a  slave  wife  of  whom 
the  chief  wife  was  jealous.  The  king  went  off  on  a  journey  and  sent  all 
his  wives  to  their  respective  families  till  his  return.  The  slave  has  no 
home,  but  is  magically  provided  for  in  the  forest,  and  there  gives  birth 
to  a  son.  On  the  return  of  the  king  it  is  found  that  all  the  wives 
except  the  slave  and  her  friend  have  borne  animals.  The  queen, 
therefore,  takes  the  slave's  baby,  substituting  for  it  the  snails  she 
herself  has  borne.  But  it  refuses  nourishment,  and  the  king, 
enlightened  by  his  wizard,  suggests  a  ceremony  by  which  each 
offspring  will  know  its  own  mother.  The  slave  then  becomes  queen, 
and  the  jealous  woman  is  sent  away  for  ever. — Nassau,  p.  332, 
"  Queen  Ngwe-nkonde  and  her  Manja." 

-  See  pp.  269,  326. 


362  THE  CLEVER  YOUNGEST  SON 

version  of  Cupid  and  Psyche  the  sisters  advise  the 
bride  to  light  a  candle  so  that  she  may  see  the 
mysterious  husband,  and  in  consequence  she  loses 
him  ;  this  occurs  in  an  Italian  tale  as  well.-^  In  Greek 
and  Italian  variants  the  sisters  tell  her  not  to  drink 
the  coffee  with  which  he  drugs  her ;  she  obeys  them 
and  keeps  awake. ^  Sometimes  (Lorraine,  Italian) 
they  wring  the  secret  from  her,  and  the  husband 
perishes  miserably,  or  disappears  ;  while  in  a  Sicilian 
story  they  tell  her  to  ask  his  name. 

(7)  A  Basque  story  illustrates  the  next  group, 
usually  called  ''The  Value  of  Salt."  A  certain  king 
had  three  daughters,  and  like  King  Lear  asked  them 
how  much  they  loved  him.  ''As  much  as  my  little 
finger,"  said  the  eldest;  "as  much  as  my  middle 
finger,"  said  the  second;  "as  much  as  bread  loves 
the  salt,"  said  the  youngest.  In  a  rage  her  father 
sent  her  to  the  forest  to  be  killed,  but  the  servants 
set  her  free  and  killed  a  horse  instead,  taking  its 
heart  home  in  place  of  the  girl's.  For  a  time  she 
lived  in  the  forest  on  plants  and  flowers  brought  her 
by  bees  and  birds,  but  at  last  a  king's  son  found  her, 
and  insisted  on  marrying  her.  At  the  wedding,  to 
which  her  father  was  invited,  she  gave  him  bread 
without  salt  and  then  revealed  herself,  when  he 
acknowledged  the  wrong  he  had  done.^  Of  this  tale 
there  are  Flemish,  Hungarian,  Spanish,  Italian, 
German,  and  Indian  variants,*  all  closely  resembling 
this,  but  usually  the  girl  goes  through  many  adven- 
tures, as  in  the  English  Cap  o'  Rushes,  where  she 
takes  service  as  a  scullion,  dressed  in  a  garment 
made  of  rushes,  and  attends  a  neighbouring  dance 

1  Apuleius,  The  Golden  Ass.    Crane,  p.  6. 

2  Garnett,  ii.  277.     Basile,  i.  211. 
^  Webster,  p,  165. 

^  Bib,  de  T.P.  Esp.^  viii.  175.    Busk,  p.  403  ;  Crane,  p.  333.    Grimm, 
No.  179.     Stokes,  p.  164. 


THE  VALUE  OF  SALT  363 

three  times  in  the  clothes  which  she  wears  beneath 
her  dress  of  rushes.  Her  master's  son  gives  her  a 
ring",  which  she  afterwards  sends  up  to  table  in  a 
dish,  and  is  discovered.  Then  follows  the  wedding 
and  the  banquet,  at  which  every  dish  is  unsalted.^ 
On  the  simple  framework  of  such  a  story  as  the 
Basque  example  a  Cinderella  version  has  been 
grafted,  giving  such  a  composite  story  as  this.  The 
elder  sisters  are  here  neither  malicious  nor  wicked  : 
in  an  Italian  version  it  is  they  who  spare  their  sister 
in  the  forest.  A  Buddhist  version  is  of  a  more 
sinister  type,  and  deals  with  five  brothers,  four  of 
whom  are  hostile  to  the  youngest.  They  fail  in 
trading ;  he  succeeds,  but  leaves  home  because  they 
plot  to  kill  him.  He  next  appears  married  to  three 
princesses,  when  his  parents  and  brothers  come  to 
him  in  great  poverty  and  are  supported  by  him.  All 
this,  in  accordance  with  Jaina  belief,  is  due  to  his 
merit  in  a  former  existence,  and  in  the  sequel  he  is 
reborn  as  a  god.  An  earlier  folk-tale  of  the  salt  type 
has  obviously  been  made  use  of  to  enforce  Buddhist 
doctrine.^  A  Basuto  tale  has  so  many  points  of 
likeness  with  this  class,  that  I  cite  it  here.  Modisa 
was  the  youngest  and  despised  child,  and  her 
parents  at  last  drove  her  from  home.  As  she 
wandered  off  she  was  magically  supplied  with  food, 
and  dressing  herself  in  grass,  arrived  at  a  hut  in 
which  no  one  seemed  to  dwell,  where  again  she 
continued    to   get  food,   which  came  whenever  she 

^  Jacobs,  p.  51.  An  interesting  study  of  this  and  the  next  cycle 
will  be  found  in  F.L.J.,  iv.  308,  "The  Outcast  Child,"  by  Mr  Hart- 
land.  For  a  Suffolk  Cap  o'  Rushes  story,  see  County  Folk- Lore : 
Suffolk^  p.  40. 

■^  Tawney,  p.  'jZ.  A  story  from  Agenais,  in  which  the  youngest 
daughter,  who  likes  her  father  as  much  as  he  likes  salt,  supports  him 
when  his  elder  daughters  send  him  adrift  in  the  world,  connects  this 
cycle  with  the  mediaeval  story  of  Lear  in  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth,  and 
of  the  Emperor  Theodosius  and  his  daughter.  Blade,  p.  31.  Cf. 
Mr  Hartland's  paper  on  "  The  Outcast  Child." 


364  THE  CLEVER  YOUNGEST  SON 

wished  it.  At  night  she  was  visited  by  an  invisible 
man  (the  owner  of  the  hut),  to  whom  in  due  time  she 
bears  a  son.  This  man  is  very  rich,  and  at  last  she 
sees  him  and  his  relations.  He  sends  famine  upon 
her  village,  and  her  contemptuous  parents  and  sisters 
have  to  come  to  her  beg-ging  for  food  like  Joseph's 
brethren.  They  are  sent  away  with  sacks  full  of 
filth ;  only  her  grandmother,  who  once  was  kind  to 
her,  gets  proper  food.^ 

(8)  The  next  group  has  much  resemblance  to  this. 
There  are  several  Eastern  versions,  of  which  the 
following  from  Kashmir  is  typical.  A  king  asked 
his  four  sons  by  whose  good  fortune  it  was  that  he 
possessed  such  a  great  kingdom.  "  By  his  own,"  said 
the  three  eldest ;  "  By  mine,"  said  the  youngest,  and 
for  his  answer  he  was  banished.  After  a  strange 
career,  in  which  he  gained  honours  and  wives  in 
different  lands,  he  heard  that  his  father  and  brothers 
had  lost  the  kingdom  and  were  languishing  in  prison. 
Having  collected  an  army,  he  repelled  the  enemy  and 
reinstated  his  father,  who  acknowledged  that,  after 
all,  he  had  spoken  the  very  truth,  and  resigned  the 
kingdom  to  him.^  The  same  story  is  found  in  India 
and   Persia.^      European  variants    have  a  different 

^  Jacottet,  p.  136.  Another  Basuto  story  has  some  resemblance 
to  this.  The  Master  of  the  Waters  refuses  to  supply  a  village  with 
water  unless  the  chiefs  daughter  is  sent  to  be  his  wife.  She  goes, 
but  sees  no  one.  A  voice  speaks  to  her,  and  in  her  sleep  a  hut  is 
built  over  her.  After  her  child  is  born  she  is  permitted  to  go  home, 
and  returns  with  her  sister,  who  beats  the  child  when  it  cries  ;  then  the 
husband  ceases  to  be  invisible.  A  similar  incident  occurs  in  the  story 
in  the  text.  This  tale  is  linked  to  the  Beauty  and  the  Beast  cycle,  and 
also  to  the  Dragon  cycle,  because,  in  a  variant,  it  is  a  yellow  serpent 
which  stops  the  supply.     Cf.  p.  405  zn/ra.     Jacottet,  p.  178. 

2  Knowles,  p.  355.  In  another  Kashmir  tale  the  younger  of  two  girls 
is  married  to  a  thief  s  servant,  because  she  said  fate  was  greater  than 
duty  ;  but  becoming  wealthy,  she  had  the  satisfaction  of  hearing  her 
father  agree  with  her  opinion,     /h'd.,  p.  326.     Cf.  Tawney,  p.  184. 

2  Miss  Stokes,  p.  193. 


THE  FORTUNATE  YOUTH  365 

introduction,  as  in  a  Serbian  tale,  where  the  king- 
asks  his  three  sons  to  note  their  dreams.  The  first 
dreams  he  will  be  heir  ;  the  second,  the  chief  subject ; 
the  third,  that  his  brothers  will  hold  a  basin  and  his 
mother  a  towel  before  him,  and  his  father  will  wash 
his  hands.  In  the  sequel  all  this  comes  true,  because 
meanwhile  the  youth  returns  resplendent.^  This 
story,  with  the  prophetic  dream,  is  found  in  Italy, 
Greece,  Brazil,  and  elsewhere ;  in  a  Siberian  variant, 
the  parents  dreamt  of  as  lean  camels  are  reduced  to 
poverty,  and  beg"  of  their  son,  who  kills  them  because 
they  were  cruel  to  him,  and  g^ives  his  wives  his 
father's  flesh  to  eat.^  It  is  possible  that  the  biblical 
story  of  Joseph  has  sugg-ested  the  formula  of  this 
group,  which  then  spread  from  land  to  land ;  others 
have  supposed  that  Joseph's  dream,  if  not  his  whole 
history,  is  a  Hebrew  saga  variant  of  the  g-roup. 

(9)  In  another  grroup  of  stories  the  youngest  son 
appears  as  the  most  fortunate  of  the  three  brothers, 
as  in  the  following  Norse  tale.  To  the  youngest  of 
three  brothers  it  was  granted  that  all  women  would 
fall  in  love  with  him ;  to  the  others,  that  whenever 
they  put  their  hands  in  their  pockets  they  would  find 
money.  They  travelled  together,  but  the  elder 
brothers  would  not  share  their  money  with  the 
youngest ;  three  amorous  hostesses  in  succession 
gave  him  magical  objects.  All  arrived  at  a  certain 
place,  where  the  king  welcomed  the  rich  brothers,  but, 
because  of  his  rags,  sent  the  youngest  to  the  ''fool's 
island."  There  the  king's  daughter  discovered  him, 
and  by  means  of  his  magical  objects  he  won  her  love 
and  married  her,  his  selfish  brothers  being  sent  to 
take  his  place  on  the  island.  Success  in  love  is  also 
ascribed  to  the  youngest  of  four  brothers  in  a  Maori 

^  Mijatovich,  p.  237. 

2  Pitre,  i.  87  (daughters) ;  Finamore,  i.  83.  Hahn,  i.  258. 
Romero,  p.  12.     Gubematis,  Z.M.^  i.  139. 


366  THE  CLEVER  YOUNGEST  SON 

story.  The  beautiful  Hinernoa  loved  Tutane,  and 
promised  to  cross  to  his  island  and  be  his  wife.  One 
night  his  brothers  boasted  that  they  had  obtained 
her  favours ;  he  angrily  denied  it,  and  swore  she 
loved  him  alone.  They  scoffed  at  him;  "you  are  a 
younger  son  only,  one  whom  a  chiefs  daughter  could 
never  marry."  That  very  night  Hinernoa  swam 
across  the  strait,  and  at  dawn,  pretending  to  be  a 
man,  broke  the  gourds  which  Tutane's  slave  was 
filling  with  water.  Tutane  came  to  punish  the  man 
and  found  his  lover,  whom  he  made  his  wife,  to  the 
disgust  of  his  elder  brothers.^  So  in  Polynesian 
mythology,  Maui,  the  successful  culture-hero,  is  also 
a  youngest  son. 

(lo)  Sometimes  the  cleverness  of  the  youngest  son 
is  emphasised.  In  a  Basque  story  three  brothers  in 
succession  take  service  with  the  same  master.  He 
sets  them  difficult  tasks,  which  the  two  elders  are  un- 
able to  perform,  and  they  are  sent  home,  according  to 
the  terms  made,  with  a  strip  of  skin  taken  out  of  their 
backs.  The  youngest  brother  performs  the  tasks, 
but  to  get  rid  of  him  the  master  sends  him  to  a  place 
where  the  monster  Tartaro  will  catch  him.  He  over- 
comes the  ogre,  and  in  consequence  his  master  has 
to  pay  him  enormous  wages,  which  he  shares  with  his 
mother  and  brothers.  This  Basque  story  is  interest- 
ing because  it  illustrates  a  widely-spread  group,  in 
which  the  bargain  is  made  with  the  master  that  who- 
ever displays  anger  at  the  engagement,  will  lose  his 
eyes,  nose,  and  ears,  or  a  strip  of  skin  from  his  back. 
The  youngest  brother  alone  keeps  his  temper,  leads 
his  master  a  terrible  life,  e.g'.,  selling  his  cattle,  and 
pretending  they  have  been  stolen  ;  and  in  several  cases 
killing  his  wife,  who  feigns  herself  to  be  the  bird  whose 
note  is  to  terminate  the  engagement.  At  last  the 
master  can  contain  himself  no  longer,  gives  vent  to 
1  Thorpe,  Y.T.S.,  p.  280.     Clarke,  p.  57. 


THE  WATCHERS  BY  THE  TOMB  367 

his  anger,  and  the  hero  has  the  best  of  the  bargfain.^ 
In  Breton  and  Lorraine  tales  there  are  only  two 
brothers,  but  these  as  well  as  Russian,  Greek,  Italian, 
Corsican,  Spanish,  Picard,  German,  Moravian, 
Lithuanian,  and  Irish  tales,  full  of  rollicking  humour, 
follow  the  story  as  detailed  here.^  The  Afghans  tell 
how  a  youth  entered  the  service  of  a  master  on  these 
conditions.  The  master  must  give  him  each  day  a 
plough  and  a  pair  of  oxen,  while  the  youth  must  sow 
every  day  a  basket  of  seed,  as  well  as  bring  food  for 
the  family  and  a  certain  quantity  of  firewood.  Who- 
ever failed  first  would  lose  his  nose.  This  happened 
to  the  youth  the  very  first  day,  and  his  younger 
brother  now  took  his  place.  He  performed  his  task, 
but  broke  the  plough  and  killed  an  ox,  so  that  next 
day  his  master  could  not  fulfil  his  part,  and  lost  his 
nose.  There  are  Indian  and  Kashmir  variants,  the 
former  bearing  the  closest  likeness  to  the  European 
versions.^  In  all  we  may  perhaps  see  the  fossil 
survival  of  some  primitive  form  of  servitude  and  its 
conditions.  Cutting  a  strip  of  skin  occurs  as  a 
punishment  in  Celtic  tales,  and  Campbell  refers  it  to 
a  form  of  torture  once  used  by  the  Scandinavians.* 

( 1 1 )  The  next  cycle  of  stories  throws  some  light 
upon  the  origin  of  the  idea  of  the  despised  but  clever 
youngest  son.  A  Mingrelian  story  illustrates  its 
typical  form.  A  king  had  three  sons  and  three 
daughters.  ''When  I  die,"  said  he,  'Met  each 
of  you  watch  by  my  tomb  for  a  week,  and  give 
these  maidens  to  whoso  shall  ask  for  them."    The 

1  Webster,  p.  ii. 

^  Luzel,  p.  29.  Cosquin,  ii.  47.  Ralston,  146.  Hahn,  No.  11. 
Ortoli,  p.  203.  Biblioteca  de  las  Trad.  pop.  espdn.,  iv.  139.  Carnoy, 
p.  316.  Proehle,  ii.  16.  Wenzig,  p.  5.  Schleicher,  p.  45.  Kennedy, 
ii.  74. 

3  Thorburn,  Bannu^  or  our  Afghan  Frontier ,  p.  199.  Calcutta 
Review^  Ii.  126.     Knowles,  p.  98. 

*  Campbell,  ii.  14,  23. 


368  THE  CLEVER  YOUNGEST  SON 

first  nig-ht  the  eldest  prince  saw  something-  swoop 
down,  digr  up  his  father's  corpse,  weep  over  it  all 
night,  and  then  reinter  it.  Next  day  he  said 
nothing ;  the  same  adventure  happened  to  the  second 
brother,  who  also  kept  silence.  Meanwhile,  the 
youngest  son  had  given  his  sisters  to  three  strange 
suitors.  His  brothers  were  displeased,  and  scoffed  at 
him  when  he  claimed  his  turn  to  watch.  At  last  they 
allowed  him  to  take  his  turn.  The  visitant  appeared  ; 
he  killed  it  with  his  sword,  but  as  the  blood  put  out 
his  candle  he  went  to  relight  it  at  a  fire  which  he  saw 
in  the  distance.  This  was  the  fire  of  certain  demis  or 
spirits,  who  forced  him  to  accompany  them  and 
capture  a  king's  three  daughters.  He  climbed  up  the 
ladder  first,  and  then  killed  them  one  by  one  as  they 
ascended.  He  gave  the  maidens  each  a  ring  and 
stuck  his  sword  in  a  stone.  Next  day  the  king  sent 
to  see  who  could  pull  out  the  sword.  Our  hero  alone 
succeeded,  and  to  him  and  his  brothers  the  princesses 
were  given  in  marriage.  Meanwhile  his  wife  was 
stolen  by  a  master-demi,  whom  he  finally  overcame, 
after  many  adventures  in  which  he  was  assisted  by 
the  husbands  of  his  sisters,  who  were  themselves 
demis.  Greek  and  Albanian  stories  bear  the  closest 
resemblance  to  this  tale;^  in  others,  e.g;,  the 
Esthonian,  the  incidents  differ.  A  father  bade  his 
three  sons  watch  by  his  grave.  The  youngest, 
scorned  by  his  brothers,  alone  did  so,  and  each  night 
his  father's  soul  told  him  that  whatever  he  wished  for 
he  would  obtain  by  striking  on  the  grave.  He  thus 
got  three  horses,  which  carried  him  to  the  top  of  a 
crystal  mountain  on  which  was  a  sleeping  princess, 
whom  he  married.  His  brothers  died  of  rage  and 
envy.    There  are  Georgian,  Russian,  Polish,  Finnish, 

1  Wardrop,  p.  112.  Legrand,  p.  145.  Dozon,  p.  121.  The  test  by 
which  the  hero  is  discovered  occurs  in  a  Senegambian  ballad,  see  p.  388. 
So  Arthur  was  made  king  when  he  drew  the  magic  sword  from  a 
stone,  just  as  Sigismund  in  the  Volsunga  saga  did. 


LIMBANG  369 

Norse,  and  Avar  versions  of  this  story :  in  the 
Russian  the  father  himself  comes  out  of  the  grave, 
shakes  the  damp  earth  off  his  body,  and  whistles  on 
the  horses ;  while  in  most  the  other  brothers  vainly 
attempt  to  win  the  coveted  bride.  ^  A  tale  from  a 
distant  part  of  the  world  which,  presumably,  has  not 
been  influenced  by  those  just  cited,  may  be  referred 
to  here  as  showing  how  similar  incidents  may  have 
arisen  independently.  Klieng,  the  divine  hero  of  the 
Dyaks,  and  his  four  brothers  went  hunting.  The 
youngest,  Limbang,  was  told  to  stay  behind  and 
cook ;  instead  of  doing  this  he  ran  on  in  front  and 
killed  a  pig.  When  the  brothers  came  up,  they  sent 
him  to  get  a  light  from  a  fire  burning  in  the  distance. 
Having  obtained  it,  he  was  met  by  Gua,  a  cannibal 
giant,  who  made  him  his  prisoner,  but  treated  him 
kindly.  Limbang  had  to  provide  him  with  food,  and 
waken  him  with  blows  from  a  sledge-hammer.  The 
giant  provided  Limbang  with  a  female  helper ;  her 
rings  and  cup  were  lost  while  bathing,  and  floated 
down  stream.  A  Malay  obtained  them,  and  sent  for 
her  to  be  his  wife.  The  remainder  of  the  story  tells 
of  the  subsequent  fighting  between  this  Malay  and 
his  forces  and  the  giant,  helped  by  Limbang.  Klieng 
assisted  the  Malay,  and  the  two  brothers  once 
more  met.  Here  the  incidents  of  the  light  and  the 
capture  are  almost  identical  with  those  in  the  tales 
just  cited.^ 

^  Kirby,  ii.  40.  Wardrop,  p.  140.  Ralston,  p.  256.  Dasent,  pp. 
13,  40.  Schiefner,  No.  4.  The  glass  mountain  was  suggested  by 
pagan  Slavonic  belief.     See  p.  442  infra. 

-  Ling  Roth,  i.  328.  Still  closer  is  the  resemblance  to  the  Magyar 
story  of  The  Hunting  Princes  (Jones,  p.  39),  who  do  nothing  but  hunt 
all  day  long.  The  youngest  is  sent  to  get  a  light,  and  is  captured  by 
robbers,  the  story  then  proceeding  as  in  the  Mingrelian  and  other 
variants.  The  incident  of  desire  awakened  in  a  man  by  the  sight  of  a 
woman's  ornaments  (or  hair)  floating  down  stream  has  been  met  with 
in  the  Egyptian  tale  of  The  Two  Brothers.  It  occurs  in  many 
Eastern  stories,  and  recalls  the  slipper  incident  in  Cinderella  tales 

2  A 


370  THE  CLEVER  YOUNGEST  SON 

Another  series,  corresponding:  in  the  later  in- 
cidents to  the  Ming-relian  story,  opens  differently.  A 
widow  and  her  sons,  too  poor  to  pay  for  masses  for 
the  dead  father,  are  haunted  by  his  spirit,  and  while 
seeking  to  deliver  themselves,  usually  by  a  pilgrimage, 
lose  the  youngest  brother.  He  is  taken  by  giants  or 
robbers,  and  forced  to  assist  them  in  abducting  a 
princess  or  in  stealing  from  a  king.  He  kills  them 
and  marries  the  princess.  We  find  this  form,  with 
variations  in  detail,  in  Lorraine,  Tyrol,  Hungary, 
Serbia,  Germany,  Italy,  Greece,  and  Albania.^ 

The  stories  in  which  the  dead  father  assists  his 
son  recall  the  Cinderella  stories  of  the  dead  mother 
type,  while  they  point  to  beliefs,  common  in  Slavonic 
countries  as  well  as  among  the  Celts,  about  the  dead 
dweller  in  the  tomb  coming  forth  to  assist  or  to  terrify 
the  living.^ 

We  have  now  to  inquire  how  these  stories  of  the 
youngest  son  or  daughter  overcoming  the  treachery 
or  jealousy  of  the  elders,  or  of  his  or  her  superior 
cleverness  or  good  luck,  arose.  Obviously  they  are 
intended  to  excite  our  sympathy  for  the  despised 
youngest  son.  This  may  be  thought  to  arise  from 
the  idea  that  the  youngest,  being  ipso  facto  despised 
and  poor,  ought  to  succeed  in  life  better  than  the 
others,  by  way  of  compensation.  Being  youngest,  he 
excites  sympathy.  We  must  not  overlook  this,  nor 
another  reason  suggested  by  Mr  Lang,  viz.,  that  "in 
adventures,  if  there  is  to  be  accumulating  interest, 
some  one  must  fail ;  the  elder  sons  would  attempt  the 

Both  suggest  sympathetic  magic,  with  its  doctrine  of  the  part  influ- 
encing or  hinting  of  the  whole.  For  some  shoe-lore,  see  Leland,  Gypsy 
Sorcery^  p.  112. 

1  Cosquin,  ii.  69.  Zingerle,  i.  No.  33.  Busk,  p.  167.  Archiv.fUr 
Slav.  Phil.,  ii.  614.     Grimm,  No.  iii. 

2  For  this  belief,  see  Ralston,  R.F.T.  passim,  and  Curtin,  p.  156 
seq.  Cf.  the  Norse  saga  which  tells  how  Hervor  obtained  the  sword 
Tirfing  from  the  barrow  of  the  dead  father,  by  force  of  her  entreaties 
to  him. 


BOOTS  371 

adventure  first ;  consequently  the  youngrest  must  be 
the  successful  hero."^  True,  but  this  does  not  apply 
to  all  the  story-g-roups  ;  and  what  if  the  sympathy  for 
the  young-est  born  had  once  taken  the  practical  form 
of  making"  him  the  heir,  from  which  position  he  was 
gradually  ousted  by  the  changing  social  state  and  the 
introduction  of  a  new  system  of  inheritance?  The 
feeling  for  the  youngest  son  would  then  take  a  more 
sentimental  form ;  he  would  be  the  youth  despoiled 
of  his  rights,  and  in  the  eyes  of  many,  especially  of 
mothers,  the  heir  de  facto  though  not  de  jure.  This 
I  take  with  Elton  and  with  Mr  Lang  at  an  earlier 
stage  of  his  folk-lore  career  to  be  the  point  of 
departure  for  the  youngest  son  formula.^ 

In  several  of  the  groups  we  see  the  elder  brothers 
depriving-  the  youngest,  not  of  his  inheritance,  but  of 
the  credit  which  ought  to  be  his.  In  spite  of  this  he 
wins  it,  and  attains  the  highest  place  and  honour. 
But  in  a  few  stories  we  find  that  they  do  deprive  him 
of  his  share  of  the  inheritance.  This  occurs  in  a 
Norse  story.  The  youngest  of  twelve  sons  went  to 
seek  his  fortune,  and  on  his  return  found  his  father 
dead  and  the  inheritance  divided  among  his  brothers, 
who  only  gave  him  twelve  mares.  The  foal  of  one  of 
these  is  the  cause  of  his  good  fortune,  and  wins  him 
the  hand  of  a  princess.  The  introduction  to  a 
Norse  variant  of  the  third  group  tells  how  the  two 
elders  took  all,  while  Boots,  the  youngest,  only  got 
the  kneading-trough,  which,  however,  turned  out  to 
have  magical  powers,  and  performed  the  tasks  which 
the  king  set  him  at  the  instigation  of  his  jealous 
brothers.  It  is  curious  to  find  the  same  idea  in 
Senegambia.  There  the  beloved  youngest  son  is 
despoiled  of  his  share  by  the  elders,  who  find  him 
■  sleeping,  and  say  that  as  he  has  chosen  sleep,  he  must 

^  Introduction  to  Miss  Cox's  Cinderella^  xiii. 

'•^  Elton,  Origins  of  English  History^   p.    184.     Lang's  Perrault^ 
xcviii. 


372  THE  CLEVER  YOUNGEST  SON 

be  content  with  it.  One  day  he  saw  the  eldest 
brother  asleep,  and  killed  him,  saying-  that  he  had 
stolen  his  share,  viz.,  sleep,  and  according  to  law, 
must  die.  The  second  brother  at  once  fled,  and  the 
youngest  became  their  heir.  So  in  a  Bengal  tale 
three  brothers  turn  out  the  youngest  son  and  their 
mother,  whose  favourite  he  is,  and  take  possession  of 
the  estate.  In  the  sequel  he  won  great  riches  and  a 
beautiful  wife.^ 

Stories  such  as  these  point,  at  first  sight,  to 
nothing  more  than  unfraternal  feeling,  but  this  still 
leaves  unexplained  why  it  is  the  youngest  son  who  is 
so  persistently  set  forth  as  the  object  of  our  sympathy. 
We  find  the  answer  in  this,  that  at  one  time  he  was  the 
most  important  member  of  the  family.  We  are  so 
accustomed  to  the  law  of  primogeniture,  that  it  is 
impossible  to  imagine  a  time  when  the  eldest  son 
did  not  necessarily  inherit  first  and  when  the  youngest 
son  was  the  principal  heir.  Yet  certain  fossilised 
survivals  of  this  time  in  lands  where  primogeniture  is 
the  rule,  as  well  as  the  actual  custom  itself  persisting 
among  certain  peoples,  prove  that  such  a  method  of 
inheritance  was  once  as  usual  and  as  natural  as  that 
to  which  we  are  now  accustomed. 

The  custom  as  it  survives  in  England  is  called 
Borough- English,  in  France  Mainete  and  Juveig- 
nerie,  in  Germany  Jiingsten-recht.    Borough- English 

^  Thorpe,  Y.T.S.,  p.  253.  Berenger-Feraud,  Contes^  p.  117. 
Day,  p.  224.  Cf.  a  Malagasy  tale,  where  the  eldest  gets  much, 
"because  of  his  seniority,"  the  second  less,  and  the  third  least, 
"because  of  his  being  the  youngest."  He  goes  off  and  complains  to 
God,  follows  His  instructions,  and  becomes  rich.  His  brothers  also 
go  to  God,  but  rejecting  the  advice  given,  are  changed  to  lemurs. — 
F.L./.j  ii.  75.  Cf.  an  Aino  story,  where  a  father,  in  the  younger  son's 
absence,  dies,  leaving  directions  that  the  elder  should  divide  the 
property  equally.  On  the  younger's  return,  the  elder  will  give  him 
nothing.  Off  he  went  to  Hades  to  interview  his  father's  ghost,  and 
found  out  how  his  rights  had  been  disregarded.  Returning,  he  told 
his  brother  what  he  had  done,  and  the  latter  apologised,  and  gave  him 
his  share.— Batchelor,  p.  228. 


BOROTTGH-ENGLISH  373 

in  England  varies  in  extent  according  to  local  laws 
affecting  manorial  rights ;  the  most  definite  instance 
is  found  on  the  manor  of  Taunton-Dene  in  Somerset- 
shire, where,  if  a  tenant  die  without  a  widow,  and 
leaves  more  sons  than  one,  "the  youngest  hath 
used  to  inherit  the  lands  as  sole  heir  to  his  father  ; 
and  so  likewise  of  daughters,  if  he  die  without  issue 
male,  the  youngest  daughter  ought  to  inherit  the 
same  as  sole  heir  to  her  father."^  Sometimes,  as  in 
Kent,  the  right  of  the  youngest  son  is  less  marked, 
but  is  important,  since  the  manorial  law  allots  to  him 
or  to  the  youngest  daughter,  **the  hearth  place  in  the 
homestead  and  as  far  as  forty  feet  around  it."^ 
However  much  these  tenures  vary,  we  see  in  all,  says 
Elton,  *' a  curious  preference  for  the  youngest  son  or 
daughter  over  the  other  heirs."  So  the  ancient 
Welsh  laws  of  Hoel  allot  to  the  youngest  son  the 
homestead,  with  eight  acres  of  land,  and-  the  best  of 
the  implements — hatchet,  boiler,  and  ploughshare ;  in 
Shetland  he  received  the  dwelling-house ;  and  in 
Ireland  he  was  given  the  harp  and  chessboard.^ 

In  France  we  find,  at  Grimberghe  in  Brabant,  the 
whole  paternal  property  given  to  the  youngest  son ; 
in  other  cases,  only  certain  important  pieces  of 
furniture  were  his  by  right.  This  is  also  true  of 
Germanic  instances ;  as  in  Westphalia,  Silesia,  and 
Wurtemburg  the  succession  was  vested  in  the 
youngest  son ;  elsewhere  he  received  only  certain 
''hofgiiter"  without  question.  Similar  survivals  may 
be   traced  in   Russia  and  in    Hungary;*    it    is   the 

^  Collinson,  Hist,  of  Somerset^  iii.  233  ;  Elton,  p.  194.  Borough- 
English  continued  in  Leicester  till  1255,  when,  on  the  petition  of  the 
inhabitants,  the  earl  granted  a  change  in  the  method  of  inheritance. — 
Thompson,  Eng.  Mon.  Hist.,  p.  62. 

'^  Elton,  p.  189. 

^  Wallace's  Orkney,  P-  9i-  O'Curry,  Manners  of  Ancient  Irish, 
\.  Intro,  clxxix. 

*  Elton,  pp.  195-8.  Hearn,  Aryan  Household,  p.  82.  Robertson, 
Early  Kings  of  Scotland,  ii.  266, 


374  THE  CLEVER  YOUNGEST  SON 

g-eneral  custom  among-  the  Saxons  of  Transylvania 
that  the  youngest  son  should  receive  the  house  and 
yard.^ 

Of  the  actual  existence  of  the  practice  among- 
primitive  peoples  there  are  several  instances. 
Herodotus  speaks  of  it  as  occurring  among-  the 
Scythians  ;  certain  Mong-ol  tribes  are  bound  by  it ; 
with  the  Northern  Tchuds  the  house  of  the  chief  of 
the  family  goes  to  the  youngest  son  at  death.  An 
echo  of  this  may  be  found  in  what  Alberic  says  of 
Prester  John,  that,  though  least  of  his  brethren,  he 
was  set  above  them..  The  custom  among  the 
nomadic  Tartars  is  that  the  youngest  son  receives 
the  paternal  estate,  flocks,  and  movables,  the  elder 
sons  having  already  been  assigned  their  shares,  and 
having  formed  separate  households.  The  preference 
for  the  youngest  as  heir  is  also  found  in  Arakan, 
among  the  Mros  of  Arawak,  while  with  the  Singhpos, 
though  the  eldest  son  inherits  lands,  the  youngest 
gets  all  personal  effects,  intermediate  sons  receiving 
nothing.^ 

These  survivals  over  definite  European  areas, 
as  well  as  the  existence  of  the  custom  elsewhere, 
prove  that  we  are  face  to  face  with  no  mere  eccen- 
tricity of  inheritance;  they  suggest  that  this  may 
once  have  been  a  universal  law.  Various  reasons 
have  been  assigned  for  the  existence  of  this  law. 
Blackstone  and  Robertson  cite  several,  and  incline  to 
the  opinion  that  the  elder  sons,  having  become 
pars  reipubliccB  and  ceased  to  be  pars  domus, 
had  received  an  allotment  of  public  land,  while 
the  youngest  remained  with  his  father  to  carry  on 
the  household.  Littleton  explains  it  by  saying  that 
after  the  death  of  his  parents  the  youngest  son  would 

1  E.  Gerard,  i.  207. 

2  Herod,  iv.  5,  10.  Bastian,  Rechts  verhaltnesse^  p.  185.  Alberic, 
Trium  Fontium  Chronicon,  ii.  508.  Letourneau,  Evol.  of  Property,  p. 
325- 


ANCESTOR  WORSHIP  AND  HEARTH  PLACE     375 

be  least  likely  to  take  care  of  himself,  and  hence  his 
maintenance  was  made  sure  by  casting-  the  inherit- 
ance upon  him.  Mr  Gomme  and  others  think  it  due 
to  the  fact  that  the  elders  (as  in  the  case  of  the 
nomadic  Tartars)  had  gone  out  to  found  new  home- 
steads, the  father's  homestead  being  then  reserved 
for  the  youngest  son.^  Perhaps  the  story  of  Jacob 
and  Esau — Esau  the  elder  going  off  to  found  a  new 
family  and  home,  Jacob  the  younger  staying  at  home 
and  becoming  heir — is  a  reminiscence  of  this,  but 
coloured  to  suit  a  later  age,  in  which  primogeniture 
was  the  rule,  and  some  explanation  of  Esau's  dis- 
inheritance was  needed.  Elton  derives  the  practice 
from  the  domestic  religion  centring  in  ancestral 
worship  and  consequent  reverence  for  the  hearth, 
with  people  who  saw  no  natural  pre-eminence  in  the 
eldest. 

This  view  is  probably  the  best  explanation.  It 
suggests  that  on  the  youngest  son  devolved  the  rites 
of  the  worship  of  the  departed  father,  and  as  such 
rites  were  invariably  connected  with  the  hearth  as 
the  rallying-place  of  the  home,  the  hearth  and  home- 
stead naturally  became  his  by  right.  We  have  seen 
how  the  homestead  is  given  to  the  youngest  son, 
while  in  certain  cases  explicit  reference  is  made  to  the 
hearth.  Folk-tales  show  that  the  connection  of  the 
youngest  child  with  the  hearth  had  by  no  means  been 
forgotten ;  Cinderella,  Cinder-jack,  the  Norse  Boots, 
all  have  their  natural  place  at  the  fireside.  It  has 
become  a  position  of  degradation ;  but  once  it  was 
the  place  of  honour.  Nor  is  this  quite  forgotten, 
for  from  it  the  despised  hero  or  heroine  is  taken 
directly  to  place  and  power.     As  for  the  funeral  rites 

*  Hearn,  Aryan  Household^  p,  83.  Robertson,  Early  Kings, 
ii.  269.  Archaologia,  i.  1857.  In  the  Esthonian  Kalevipoeg  the 
elder  sons  go  off  when  the  father  declares  that  his  yet  unborn  son  is 
to  be  his  heir,  but  later  he  and  they  fight  for  the  heirship. — Kirby, 
i.  18  ;  cf.  canto  8. 


376  THE  CLEVER  YOUNGEST  SON 

and  the  ritual  of  ancestral  worship  devolving-  on  the 
youngest-born,  the  Cinderella  tales,  in  which  the  gifts 
are  directly  supplied  to  the  despised  child  from  the 
parent's  grave,  may  be  a  survival.  But  there  is  no 
doubt  of  the  survival  in  the  stories  of  the  eleventh 
group.  In  some,  all  the  sons  share  the  watch  by  the 
grave,  but  the  youngest  is  more  wakeful ;  it  is  to  him 
that  the  dead  father  gives  the  gifts  which  bring 
success ;  while  in  others  he  alone  keeps  watch,  as  if 
it  was  his  right  alone  to  do  so. 

It  has  been  seen  how  the  law  of  Jiingsten-recht 
sometimes  allotted  certain  definite  articles  to  the 
youngest  born.  Some  of  our  stories,  as  the  Norse 
one  of  the  magic  kneading-trough,  are  a  reminiscence 
of  this.  But  Elton  has  shown  that  such  articles  may 
have  had  a  religious  significance,  since  the  mandrake 
which  brought  good  luck  became  in  mediaeval 
German  households  the  property  of  the  youngest 
son  on  condition  that  he  performed  certain  ancient 
rites  at  his  father's  grave. 

How  did  it  happen  that  no  natural  pre-eminence 
should  have  been  seen  in  the  eldest  son?  At  first, 
and  while  descent  was  counted  through  the  mother, 
a  man's  sons  are  not  his  heirs,  the  heir  is  invariably 
his  sister's  son.  While  a  sister's  son  would  certainly 
be  related  to  a  man  by  blood,  his  wife's  children 
would  be  less  so — this  uncertainty  surviving  from 
the  time  when  promiscuity  prevailed.  This  is 
the  usual  explanation;  but  it  is  not  at  all  unlikely 
that  there  was  no  question  of  uncertainty,  but,  as 
with  the  Arunta  of  Central  Australia,  that  there 
existed  absolute  ignorance  of  what  caused  concep- 
tion. Be  this  as  it  may,  with  the  rise  of  the 
patriarchate,  possibly  caused  by  clearer  ideas  of 
affiliation,  the  question  of  inheritance  would  at  once 
arise.  Who  was  to  succeed  the  father?  It  is  far 
from  unlikely  that  the  youngest  born  was  chosen, 
because  he  was   nearer   his    father    in    time,   more 


JONGSTEN-RECHT  and  primogeniture     377 

especially  if  the  elder  sons  had  already  swarmed  off. 
Even  now  in  polygamous  countries  the  child  of  the 
favourite  wife  is  the  heir,  or,  as  among-  the  Kafirs, 
the  chiefs  inheritance  devolves  on  the  child  of  the  latest 
wife.  The  time  came,  however,  when  the  usual  form 
of  the  patriarchate,  viz.,  primogeniture,  arose,  and  the 
eldest  son  was  preferred  before  the  youngest.  This, 
however,  cannot  have  occurred  all  at  once ;  there 
may  even  have  been  a  time  when,  as  with  the 
Singhpos,  eldest  and  youngest  were  nearly  equal. 
But  the  gradual  change  would  be  accelerated  by  the 
natural  desire  of  the  elders  to  claim  what  was  now 
deemed  their  right,  and  to  oust  the  youngest  son,  who 
would  be  despised.  Lost  causes  and  disinherited 
princes  often  excite  much  sympathy,  and  with  many 
the  heir  de  facto  may  also  have  been  considered  as 
still  the  heir  de  jrcre.  If  he  were  the  son  of  a  chief,  it 
is  conceivable  that  he  may  have  rallied  a  party  round 
him  and  won  by  force  what  had  once  been  his  by 
right.  In  any  case  there  must  have  been  felt  for  him 
much  sympathy,  and  it  was  given  definite  form. 
Hence  it  is  to  this  period,  when  the  law  of  primo- 
geniture was  superseding  that  of  Jlingsten-recht,  and 
when  the  claim  of  the  youngest  was  not  yet  forgotten, 
that  we  must  ascribe  the  early  forms  of  the  stories  of 
the  youngest  son.  He  is  pictured  as  a  simpleton, 
despised,  ill-treated,  the  victim  of  evil  plots.  His 
elder  brothers  are  his  natural  enemies ;  even  his 
father  is  not  always  his  friend.  But  he  invariably 
ends  by  proving  himself  the  cleverest ;  he  wins  his 
way  by  valour ;  beautiful  women  smile  upon  him ; 
he  overcomes  the  wiles  of  his  jealous  and  treacherous 
brothers ;  he  comes  into  his  kingdom  after  all,  and 
they  receive  their  just  punishment.  We  might 
almost  say  that  such  stories  had  been  invented  to 
stem  the  tide  of  the  new  law ;  at  all  events  they 
became  immensely  popular,  and  long  after  the  time  of 
the  conflicting  heirships  had  passed,  the  formula  of 


378  THE  CLEVER  YOUNGEST  SON 

the  despised  but  clever  youngest  son  was  attached  to 
new  stories,  and  became  almost  the  inevitable 
introduction  to  a  vast  series  of  folk-tales.  Sometimes 
the  formula  varies,  and  introduces  a  youngest  daughter 
and  her  sisters.  This  need  not  have  been  done 
merely  for  the  sake  of  variety ;  we  have  seen  how 
Borough-English  sometimes  respected  the  youngest 
daughter's  claim. 

Our  theory  receives  illustration  from  Kafir  custom 
and  folk-tale.  The  chiefs  heir  is  the  child  of  his 
youngest  wife.  Of  the  other  wives,  one  is  called 
''the  right-hand  wife,"  and  her  son,  when  he  comes 
of  age,  has  part  of  the  government  given  to  him  so 
long  as  the  heir  is  a  minor.  Often  he  abuses  his 
position,  and  attempts  to  defraud  the  heir  and  obtain 
the  chieftaincy.  From  this  actual  occurrence  have 
arisen  many  tales  of  the  perfidy  of  the  elder  son  and 
the  ultimate  triumph  of  the  true  heir.  What  has 
happened  in  South  Africa  has  happened  elsewhere, 
and  is  the  key  to  the  central  incident  of  our  tales.  ^ 

In  view  of  this,  the  complete  stories  of  the  Perseus 
and  Andromeda  cycle,  with  their  incidents  ( i )  of  three 
sons  born  to  one  mother,  (2)  the  eldest  rescuing  a 
princess  exposed  to  a  monster,  and  marrying  her,  (3) 
he  and  his  second  brother  being  petrified  by  a  witch, 
and  (4)  both  being  rescued  by  the  youngest  brother, 
form  an  interesting  study.  The  last  two  incidents 
frequently  occur  as  a  separate  folk-tale,  with  (as  here) 
the  youngest  as  hero.  But  the  rescue  of  the  princess 
also  occurs  separately,  and  it  is  then  ascribed  to  the 
youngest  of  three  brothers  after  the  two  elder 
brothers  have  failed.  They  put  him  out  of  the  way 
and  claim  the  reward,  but  are  confuted  in  time. 
When  both  incidents  were  welded  together  the  right 
of  the  eldest  son  had  been  firmly  established,  and  he  is 
made  the  princess's  rescuer.  But  the  claim  of  the 
youngest-born  was  still  unforgotten.     Hence  he  acts 

^  Rev.  J.  Macdonald  in  Folk-Lore^  iii.  338. 


BEAR  CHIEF  379 

as  rescuer  of  his  brothers ;  while  another  incident 
suggfests  that  jealous  treatment  meted  out  to  him  by 
his  brothers  in  other  tales.  That  incident  is  the 
killing-  of  his  rescuer  by  the  jealous  brother  when  he 
finds  that,  having  been  mistaken  for  the  real  husband 
because  he  is  so  like  him,  he  has  been  forced  to 
occupy  the  bridal  couch.  Discoveringf,  however,  that 
he  had  placed  the  sword  of  chastity  between  himself 
and  his  brother's  wife,  and  that  he  had  been  even 
more  innocent  of  offence  than  the  sixth  century  monks 
with  the  mulieres  sub-introdMctce,  over  whom  Bayle  and 
Gibbon  make  so  merry,  the  elder  brother  at  once 
restored  him  to  life,  and  things  were  made  happy  all 
round. 

The  rescue  of  two  brothers  by  their  youngest 
brother  is  a  common  folk-tale  formula,  as  has  been 
seen  in  discussing  the  Water  of  Life  cycle,  but  as  a 
rule  the  elder  brothers  (except  as  just  suggested)  are 
not  malicious.  This  formula,  then,  may  have  been 
derived  from  Jlingsten-recht  stories  with  a  purpose. 
A  North  American  Indian  story,  which  belongs  to 
this  group,  may  be  thus  explained,  or  may  simply  be 
an  example  of  the  ''accumulating  interest"  theory. 
The  spirits  of  all  dead  bears  return  to  the  mountain 
in  which  lives  the  great  bear  chief  He  is  much 
annoyed  at  the  number  of  his  servants  killed  by  two 
brothers,  whose  father  had  decried  their  powers  as 
hunters.  By  a  clever  stratagem  the  bear  chief 
entices  them  both  into  his  mountain,  and  afterwards 
causes  the  death  of  their  parents,  who  had  come  to 
look  for  them.  He  would  have  turned  the  youths 
into  bears,  but  his  sister  interceded  for  them,  and  he 
only  transformed  their  arms  and  legs  into  the 
corresponding  limbs  of  a  bear,  by  rubbing  them  with 
moss.  Their  youngest  brother  now  set  out  to  seek 
them  with  his  little  dog.  With  his  magic  arrow 
he  shot  at  the  mountain,  and  it  fell  in  ruins, 
destroying  the  chief  and  his  bears  ;  the  chiefs  sister 


.'^80  THE  CLEVER  YOUNGEST  SON 

was  spared  for  her  kindness.  When  the  boy 
discovered  his  brothers,  he  was  unable  to  devise  any 
means  to  relieve  them  of  the  enchantment,  until  the 
chiefs  sister  told  him  to  make  them  smell  some  of  the 
moss.  He  held  it  near  their  nostrils,  and  the  bear- 
skin fell  from  their  limbs.  ^  This  story  has  not 
apparently  been  borrowed  from  outside  sources.  At 
all  events  it  is  included  in  the  mythological  cycle  which 
relates  the  deeds  of  the  demi-god  Manabush,  and 
perhaps  was  once  recited  to  the  candidates  for 
initiation  to  the  mysteries  of  the  Menomini  Indians,  as 
other  myths  of  the  cycle  still  are.  If  the  tale  is  not 
derivative,  it  is  an  interesting-  example  of  a  story, 
suggesting-  the  formulae  of  European  Marc  ken,  and 
yet  '* honest  Injun." 

Long  after  the  claim  of  the  youngest  son  had 
passed  away,  the  tellers  of  folk-tales  found  some 
variety  in  making  the  youngest  son  the  villain.  Thus 
in  a  dragon  story  from  Lorraine  he  acts  as  an  impostor, 
and  says  he  has  rescued  the  princess ;  while,  in  a 
Tuscan  tale,  he  personates  his  brother,  who  is 
enchanted,  and  lives  with  his  wife.  Again,  the  eldest 
brother  acts  like  the  youngest  in  a  Hungarian  Mdrchen, 
choosing  an  ungainly  foal,  which  wins  him  the  coveted 
bride,  while  the  fine  steeds  of  his  brothers  are  easily 
beaten.  But  such  tales  are  too  few  in  number  to 
prove  anything  else  than  that  they  have  been 
modelled  on  the  popular  stories  of  the  despised  but 
successful  youngest  son. 

1  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  \/^th  Annual  Report  (1896),  part  i.,  p.  175. 
Another  myth  tells  how  the   young  hunter  caught   the   sun   in    a 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE  DRAGON    SACRIFICE  :   PERSEUS   AND   ANDROMEDA 

Whether  St  Georg-e  of  Merry  England  was  the 
Christian  martyr  George  of  Nicomedia,  or,  as  Gibbon 
believed,  the  Arian  heretic  and  persecutor  George  of 
Cappadocia,^  it  is  certain  that  the  story  of  his  slaying 
the  dragon  is  a  mere  folk-tale  which  has  now  become 
inseparably  attached  to  his  memory.  That  folk-tale 
is  frequently  but  one  of  a  series  of  incidents  in  a  more 
complicated  story  found  all  over  Europe,  to  which 
may  be  given  the  name  of  the  Perseus  and  Andro- 
meda cycle.  These  incidents  usually  occur  in  the 
following  sequence:  i.  A  fisherman  catches  a  fish 
(the  king  of  the  fishes)  which,  before  it  dies,  bids  him 
give  part  to  his  wife,  part  to  his  mare,  and  part  to  his 
dog.  All  will  bear  three  offspring.  From  the  rest, 
buried  in  the  garden,  will  spring  up  three  trees — the 
life-tokens  of  the  three  sons.^  2.  In  time  the  eldest 
son  rescues  a  princess  from  a  dragon,  who  demands  a 
victim  at  stated  periods.     He  cuts  off  the  monster's 

^  Gibbon,  ch.  xxiii. ;  Acta  Sanctorum^  23rd  April.  See  Baring- 
Gould,  p.  266. 

2  The  fish  is  really  incarnated  in  these  various  forms.  This  does 
not  prove  a  Buddhist  origin,  for  the  idea  is  of  much  earlier  date.  Cf. 
Egyptian  story  of  The  Two  Brothers,  p.  113.  We  may,  however, 
illustrate  it  from  a  Buddhist  story  of  a  fisherman  who,  having  given  a 
bonze  some  food,  caught  a  huge  eel  in  which  was  this  very  food.  His 
wife  ate  it  and  had,  in  consequence,  a  son.  Now  the  son  was  the 
eel,  and  the  eel  was  the  bonze.  Perhaps  this  is  really  a  distorted 
version  of  the  European  tale.     Landes,  p.  78. 

381 


382  THE  DRAGON  SACRIFICE 

heads,  extracting  the  tongues.  3-  He  leaves  the 
maiden,  who  returns  home.  A  charcoal-burner  takes 
up  the  heads,  and  going  to  the  palace  claims  the  girl's 
hand,  when  the  true  victor  appears  and  produces  the 
tongues  as  proof.  4.  After  his  marriage  he  looks  out 
of  the  window,  and  sees  a  castle,  which  he  visits  in 
spite  of  his  wife's  warning.  He  meets  a  witch,  and  is 
turned  to  stone.  5.  At  home  his  life-token  gives 
warning  of  his  fate.  The  second  brother  sets  off,  is 
taken  by  the  princess  for  her  husband,  sees  the 
enchanted  castle,  and  in  the  sequel  suffers  the  same 
fate.  6.  Now  the  youngest  brother  arrives,  and  by 
dint  of  superior  cleverness,  overcomes  the  witch,  and 
restores  his  brothers  to  life. 

With  more  or  less  variation  in  detail  this  is  the 
substance  of  a  story  of  which  there  are  Russian, 
Lithuanian,  Swedish,  Danish,  German,  Greek,  Tyro- 
lese,  Sicilian,  Pisan,  Spanish,  Portuguese,  French 
(Breton,  Lorraine),  and  Celtic  versions.  The  classi- 
cal and  literary  form  of  the  folk-story  is  that  of 
Perseus  and  Andromeda,  but  in  it  Perseus  con- 
quers the  Medusa  witch  first,  then  rescues  the 
maiden,  while  he  extricates  himself  from  all  his 
difficulties.^ 

To  illustrate  the  central  incident,  which  alone 
concerns  us  in  this  chapter,  I  shall  cite  a  Magyar 
version,  which  omits  the  first  incident  and  intf^iduces 
us  to  three  brothers  setting  out  on  their  travels, 
leaving  their  knives  in  a  tree  as  life-tokens.  The 
eldest  arrives  at  a  town  hung  with  black,  because  "  in 
the  lake  near  the  town  lives  a  dragon  with  seven 
heads,  who  vomits  fire,  and  to  him  we  have  to  give  a 
virgin    every    week.      To-morrow    it    is    the    king's 

1  Leskien,  p.  544  (Russian  and  Lithuanian)  ;  Cavallius,  p.  348  ; 
Grundtvig,  i.  277  ;  Kuhn  und  Schwartz,  p.  327  ;  Legrand,  p.  161  ; 
Zingerle,  p.  260  ;  Gonzenbach,  No.  40  ;  Comparetti,  p.  126  ;  Caballero, 
ii.  11;  Coelho,  p.  120;  Sebillot,  i.  124;  Cosquin,  i.  60;  Campbell, 
i.  72. 


MAVUNGA  AND  LUEMBA  383 

daughter's  turn,  and  she  has  to  g"o.  This  is  the 
reason  why  our  town  is  hung"  with  black."  In  spite  of 
the  king-  having  promised  his  daughter's  hand  to 
anyone  overcoming  the  dragon,  no  one  has  yet  come 
forward.  The  prince  at  once  goes  to  the  lake  and 
kills  the  dragon,  taking  a  tooth  out  of  each  of  its 
heads.  But  while  lying  exhausted  he  is  cut  in  pieces 
by  Red  Knight,  who  goes  off  with  the  dragon's  heads 
and  claims  his  bride.  Meanwhile  the  prince  is 
restored  to  life  by  his  animal  servants,  just  in  time  to 
confute  the  impostor  and  win  the  maiden.  The 
witch  incident  and  the  rescue  by  the  youngest  brother, 
then  follow.^  Two  variants,  from  Kabylia  and  Quili- 
mane,  show  that  the  story  has  wandered  far.^  The 
Kabyle  version  omits  the  supernatural  birth.  A 
king's  daughter  has  to  supply  a  dragon  with  food 
every  day,  i.e.,  she  is  not  sacrificed.  The  dragon  is 
killed  by  a  certain  hero,  who  marries  the  girl.  Soon 
after  he  is  turned  to  stone,  but  restored  by  his  brother. 
As  told  in  Quilimane,  the  story  runs  that  a  fisherman's 
wife  having  eaten  millet  seed  given  her  husband  by  a 
fish  (just  as  in  the  Celtic  version  the  sea-maiden  gives 
the  fisherman  three  grains),  has  two  sons,  who  become 
great  hunters.  In  a  near  country  a  whale  refuses  to 
give  up  any  of  the  water  unless  the  chief  gives  him 
his  daughter.  This  whale  is  slain  by  the  elder 
broth^fj^ho  cuts  out  its  tongue.  A  warrior  takes  its 
head  Biid  pretends  that  he  is  the  conqueror,  but, 
being  confuted  by  the  absence  of  the  tongue,  is  put 
to  death,  and  the  maiden  is  given  to  the  hero.  A 
Fjort  story  has  also  a  curious  resemblance  to  the 
introduction  and  the  sequel  of  some  of  our  tales. 
Mavunga  and  Luemba  are  twins,  each  born  with  a 
fetich.  Mavunga  set  off  on  his  travels ;  his  charm 
provided  him  magically.  Hearing  of  a  pretty  girl,  he 
resolved  to  marry  her ;  and  she,  when  she  saw  him, 

^  Jones,  p.  H2. 

2  Kabyle^  Riviere,  p.  193  ;  Quilimafic^  Rev.  D.  Macdonald,  ii.  341. 


384  THE  DRAGON  SACRIFICE 

fell  in  love  at  first  sight.  After  the  wedding  followed 
the  curious  mirror  incident  already  referred  to,  with 
Mavungfa's  annihilation  by  the  woman  of  the  mysteri- 
ous town.  Luemba  now  set  out  to  seek  his  brother, 
and  having  reached  his  sister-in-law's  village,  was 
taken  for  his  brother.  During  the  night  she  came  to 
his  hut,  but  he,  clothed  in  chastity,  caused  his  charm 
to  remove  her  and  fetch  her  back  in  the  morning. 
Mirror  incident  and  visit  to  the  mysterious  town 
occur  in  his  case,  but  he  outwitted  the  old  woman 
and  killed  her.  Then,  having  touched  his  brother's 
bones  with  his  charm,  he  restored  him  to  life,  and 
both  brothers  now  reanimated  hundreds  of  skeletons, 
who  became  their  followers.  Later,  the  brothers 
quarrelled  over  their  followers,  and  Mavunga  killed 
Luemba.  His  horse  restored  him  with  his  fetich, 
and  he  in  turn  killed  Mavunga,  to  everybody's  satis- 
faction.^ 

These  variants  suggest  that  the  story  of  a  maiden 
sacrificed  to  a  monster  and  rescued  by  a  hero,  is 
really  a  separate  tale  which  has  become  an  incident  in 
certain  story  cycles.  Thus,  as  in  the  Kabyle  story, 
Grimm's  tale  of  The  Two  Brothers  has  nothing  to  do 
with  a  marvellous  fish,  but  is  introduced  by  the 
common  incident  of  eating  two  birds  which  have 
magical  virtues.  Other  tales,  again,  contain  the  fish 
introduction,  but  omit  the  witch  sequel ;  ^  while  a 
variety  of  stories  of  this  cycle  have  no  trace  of  the 
dragon  incident  at  all.^  Other  story  cycles  in  which  it 
appears  are  (i)  that  in  which  a  strange  monster, 
captured  by  a  king,  is  set  at  liberty  by  his  son,  who 
flees  to  escape  the  king's  anger,  and  is  befriended  by 

^  Dennett,  p.  60. 

'•^  Tyrolese  (Zingerle,  No.  25) ;  Portuguese  (Coelho,  No.  52). 

2  Breton  (Luzel,  p.  63) ;  Flemish  (Wolf,  No.  27) ;  German  (Grimm, 
No.  85) ;  Austrian  (Vernaleken,  No.  35) ;  Tyrolese  (Schneller,  No. 
28) ;  Italian  (Visentini,  No.  19) ;  Sicilian  (Gonzenbach,  No.  39)  ; 
Portuguese  (Consiglieri-Pedroso,  No.  25) ;  Servian  (Vouk,  No.  29) ; 
Bosnian  (Leskien,  p.  543). 


RESCUE  OF  THE  MAIDEN  385 

the  monster  in  his  subsequent  fight  with  the  dragon,^ 
and  (2)  that  in  which  the  hero  is  a  bear's  son  or 
brought  up  by  a  bear,  or  is  one  of  several  men  noted 
for  strength,  skill,  and  craft.^  From  this  it  may  be 
supposed  that  the  dragon-slaying-  was  first  a  separate 
story  which  gathered  to  itself  others,  until  these  with 
it  were  formed  into  complete  tales.  What  more 
natural  than  that  the  hero  should  have  been  super- 
naturally  born,  or  that  he  should  have  suffered  from 
the  fraud  of  an  impostor,  or,  having  been  victorious, 
should  be  exposed  to  new  dangers.  It  was  the  art  of 
the  story-teller  to  combine  many  primitive  incidents 
into  varying  forms,  some  of  which  were  gradually 
stereotyped  and  became  classical.  The  persistence  of 
the  impostor  incident  in  nearly  all  the  variants  suggests 
that  it  must  have  been  early  added  to  the  primitive 
dragon  story. 

All  this,  however,  would  be  mere  conjecture,  were 
we  not  able  to  point  to  several  tales  containing  (with 
various  introductory  formulae)  the  simple  incident  of 
the  dragon-slaying  and  rescue  of  a  maiden ;  or  still 
more  simply,  the  slaughter  of  a  monster  by  a  hero  to 
whom  the  king  has  promised  his  daughter  should  he 
succeed.  Taking  these  groups  separately,  I  shall  cite 
some  typical  forms  of  each. 

I .  Rescue  of  a  Maiden,  [a)  The  incident  occurs 
frequently  in  the  Thousand  and  One  Nights,  The 
Sultan  of  Yemen's  son  arrived  in  a  town  which  was 
in  mourning  because  each  year  a  girl  had  to  be  given 
to  a  monster,  and  this  year  the  lot  had  fallen  on 
the  sultan's  daughter.  Having  killed  the  monster, 
the  hero,  with  the  usual  self-suppression  of  heroes  in 
these  tales,  sent  the  girl  home  and  disappeared.     In  a 

^  Basque  (Webster,  p.  22) ;  the  more  usual  form  of  this  story  makes 
the  hero  perform  several  tasks  in  which  he  receives  the  monster's 
help.     Cf.  Fairy  Tales  from  Afar,  p.  122,  see  p.  312  supra. 

^  C/!  p.  271  supra. 

2  B 


386  THE  DRAGON  SACRIFICE 

Senegambian  tale  a  serpent  exacted  the  same  annual 
tribute,  and  the  girl  was  tied  to  a  tree  on  the  lake- 
shore  ;  all  the  people  were  witnesses  of  the  sacrifice. 
Her  lover  slew  the  serpent  at  the  psychological 
moment,  and  fled  with  her,  lest  the  elders  of  the  town 
should  sacrifice  both  because  he  had  murdered  the 
serpent.  Next  day,  as  it  happened,  punishment  over- 
took the  town.  Many  such  stories  are  found  in  Japan, 
and  date  from  early  times.  One  of  them  is  told  in 
the  Ko-ji-ki,  of  certain  divinities.  ''His  Swift 
Impetuous  Male  Augustness  "  found  an  earthly  deity, 
his  wife,  and  daughter  weeping  because  an  eight- 
headed  dragon  had  eaten  seven  of  the  daughters  of 
their  house  in  as  many  years,  and  the  eighth  was  now 
waiting  her  turn.  By  placing  vessels  of  saki  on  the 
shore,  the  god  intoxicated  the  dragon  and  then  killed 
it,  marrying  the  girl.  The  pair  are  now  divinities  of 
married  life.^  In  many  tales  containing  this  simple 
incident,  the  hero  does  not  declare  himself  The  hero 
of  one  from  Ireland,  drops  one  of  his  glass  shoes  as 
he  rides  off,  and  by  it  he  is  discovered  in  the  usual 
Cinderella  fashion.^  Again,  the  hero  of  several  stories 
will  not  marry  the  rescued  maiden  until  he  knows 
what  fear  is.^  In  an  Esthonian  story,  Peter,  the 
hero,  promises  to  return  in  three  years.  At  the  end 
of  this  time  he  finds  that  the  coachman  has  claimed 
the  victory  and  the  princess's  hand.  To  kill  him  is 
easy  work,  and  Peter  proves  his  identity  by  producing 
the  monster's  horns.*    One  of  the  Algonquin  stories 

1  In  the  Arabian  Nights  the  hero  is  discovered  by  the  simple 
stratagem  of  making  all  the  men  in  the  land  pass  before  the  girl. 
Berenger-Feraud,  i.  236  ;  Contes^  p.  185.  Chamberlain,  Ko-ji-ki,  p.  60. 
The  sword  which  slew  the  dragon  is  still  preserved  as  one  of  the 
imperial  regalia  of  Japan  ! 

^  F.LJ.,  i.  54. 

•^  Lorraine,  Cosquin,  ii.  253  (the  devil  is  to  take  the  girl); 
Flemish  (a  dragon),  Cosquin,  ii.  259;  Tyrol  (dragon),  Zingerle,  i. 
No.  21  ;  Breton  (a  beast  with  seven  heads),  Sebillot,  i.  No.  11. 

^  Kirby,  ii.  7. 


CLASSICAL  VERSIONS  387 

of  the  Master  Rabbit  epos  tells  of  a  boy  who, 
travelling-  with  Rabbit,  reaches  a  village  where  the 
daughter  of  the  sagamore  is  to  be  given  next  day  to  a 
Kehwahqu,  or  cannibal  monster.  Advised  by  Rabbit, 
the  boy  says  he  can  save  her.  '*  Do  this,"  says  the 
chief,  "and  she  will  be  yours."  They  set  off  together ; 
the  Kehwahqu  pursues,  but  is  killed.  After  wedding 
the  girl,  th^  youth  is  thrown  overboard  by  the  jealous 
young  men  of  the  village,  but  is  saved  by  a  crow  and 
a  fox.  He  goes  to  recover  his  bride,  and  finds  her 
just  being-  married  to  one  of  the  young  men. 
Through  the  power  given  him  by  the  animals,  he 
transforms  all  the  youths  into  beasts.^  A  curious 
story  comes  from  Borneo,  of  a  lovely  Chinese  prin- 
cess kept  on  an  island  in  a  lake  on  the  top  of 
Mount  Kinibalu,  by  a  dragon  god.  Many  have 
tried  to  rescue  her,  only  to  meet  with  destruction ; 
but  one  day  she  will  be  released  by  a  powerful 
man,  when  the  lake  will  burst  and  overwhelm  the 
mountain. 

{d)  In  a  few  cases  the  story  ends  sadly.  Phorloe, 
daughter  of  a  king  in  Latium,  had  to  be  g-iven  to  a 
monster  who  demanded  a  victim  yearly.  Her  lover, 
Elaate,  killed  the  monster,  but  died  of  his  wounds, 
while  Phorloe  wept  so  much  that  she  was  turned  into 
a  fountain.^ 

(c)  Sometimes  the  hero  does  not  marry  the  maiden, 
occasionally  because  he  is  a  celibate  saint.  When 
the  oracle  hinted  that  a  maiden  should  be  g-iven  to 
the  dragon,  sent  by  Neptune  as  a  punishment  to 
devastate  Laomedon's  land,  the  lot  fell  on  his 
daughter  Hesione.  Hercules  passing  with  the 
Argonauts,  slew  the  monster,  and  then  went  on  his 

^  Leland,  A.L.^  p.  227.  Mr  Leland  thinks  the  story  has  been 
introduced  from  early  Norse  or  French-Canadian  sources.  But  it 
may  be  original,  and  in  any  case  has  received  original  treatment  from 
the  natives. 

2  Berenger-Feraud,  i.  225. 


388  THE  DRAGON  SACRIFICE 

way.^  Another  Greek  myth  told  how  it  was 
prophesied  that  Euryphilus  would  recover  his  reason 
by  staying-  a  barbarous  sacrifice.  This  sacrifice  was 
a  yearly  offering-  of  a  boy  and  g-irl  to  a  drag-on,  on 
account  of  the  sin  of  Cometo,  priestess  of  Diana. 
Euryphilus  slew  the  monster,  but  thougfh  he  became 
king  of  the  country,  did  not  marry  the  g-irl.  The 
Turks  say  that  Chederles,  one  of  Alexander's 
lieutenants,  rescued  a  maiden  from  a  drag-on,  only  to 
g-o  off  and  seek  fresh  adventures  ;  while  all  the  stories 
of  St  Georg-e  ag-ree  that  he,  being-  a  celibate,  could 
not  marry  the  rescued  princess  of  Libya. ^  So  in  an 
Avar  story,  Bear's  Ear  having-  saved  the  king-  of  the 
underworld's  daughter  from  a  drag-on  who  keeps 
back  the  water  except  on  one  day  in  each  year  when 
a  maiden  is  offered  to  him,  refuses  the  g-irl,  and  only 
beg-s  to  be  taken  to  the  upper  air.  A  Senegambian 
ballad  is  a  variant  of  this  tale,  but  here  a  lion  keeps 
back  the  water.  Samba,  the  hero,  slays  it,  and  fixing- 
his  lance  in  the  ground,  and  placing  his  sandal  on  the 
lion,  announces  that  whoever  can  pull  out  the  lance 
and  wear  the  sandal  is  the  lion-killer.  Of  course,  he 
only  can  do  this,  and  is  offered  the  king's  daughter. 
He  refuses  her,  and  begs  only  for  an  army  to  revenge 
himself  on  a  traitorous  uncle.^ 

(d)  The  influence  of  Christian  tradition  is  seen  in 
another  group  of  tales  where  the  dragon  is  overcome 
by  a  relic,  which  probably  replaces  the  powerful 
fetich    of  pre-Christian    stories.       A    dragon    took 

1  Diodorus  Siculus,  iv.  42.  In  a  variant,  Hercules  is  swallowed  by 
the  monster,  and  hacks  his  way  through — a  common  incident  in  folk- 
tales. 

2  Pausanias,  viii.  19  ;  Noel,  Dzct  de  la  Fable;  the  legend  of  St 
George  and  the  Dragon  first  appears  in  the  Legenda  Aurea  (fourteenth 
century),  but  occurs  in  many  folk-tales.  In  a  Servian  tale  the  saint 
bargains  that  the  people  will  become  Christians  after  he  slays  the 
dragon,  and  in  a  Portuguese  version  his  brother  marries  the  maiden, 
Mijatovich,  p.  295. 

3  Berenger-F^raud,  Contes^  p.  41. 


A  CHINESE  VERSION  389 

possession  of  a  tower  in  Bordeaux,  and  demanded 
daily  a  young  gfirl.  He  fell  in  love  with  one  of  his 
victims,  and  spared  her  life.  But  she  learned  from 
him  that  the  rod  of  St  Martial  would  destroy  him. 
Writing  this  with  her  blood  on  a  slate,  she  com- 
municated with  her  friends,  who  procured  the  relic 
and  made  the  dragon  disappear.  The  town  of 
Boerkilde  in  Norway  had  to  make  the  sacrifice 
yearly.  Meanwhile,  becoming  Christian,  the  towns- 
people sent  two  clergy  to  Rome  to  get  relics.  One  of 
them  dreamed  that  St  Lucien  would  become  patron 
of  the  town.  His  head  was  accordingly  carried  there 
and  set  before  the  dragon,  who  at  once  fled  for 
ever.^ 

(e)  In  some  cases  a  woman  destroys  the  monster. 
Thus  the  people  of  Tenos  were  tormented  by  a 
dragon,  till  an  enchantress  drew  him  from  his  den 
and  caused  his  death.  This  story  is  told  by  Aristotle, 
but  a  similar  incident  is  found  in  China.  Long  ago, 
a  huge  serpent  used  to  signify  by  a  dream  to  someone 
that  it  required  a  maiden  victim.  The  governors 
had  exhausted  all  the  daughters  of  slaves  and 
criminals,  when  a  mandarin's  daughter  volunteered, 
and  went  off  with  a  sword  and  a  dog  which  bit  at 
snakes.  Placing  rice  and  honey  before  the  serpent's 
den,  she  waited  his  coming,  let  loose  her  dog,  and 
hacked  the  serpent  to  pieces.  The  brave  girl,  in  the 
sequel,  was  married  by  a  prince.  An  Albanian  story 
has  this  peculiarity  that  the  king's  son  is  the  sacrifice 
to  a  lamia,  who  agrees  to  stop  eating  the  populace  if 
he  is  given  up.  The  lamia  is  destroyed  by  a  girl 
disguised  as  a  soldier,  who  is  rewarded  with  a  magic 
horse.  By  its  means  she  wins  a  princess  as  her 
wife,  and  her  sex  being  subsequently  changed,  all  goes 
well.2 

^  Marmier,  Lettres  sur  la  Nord. 

-Aristotle,   de  Mirab.   anim.   rerum ;   Dennys,   p.    no;    Dozon, 
No.   14.     At  Kronstadt,  in   Transylvania,  is  the  picture   of  a  huge 


390  THE  DRAGON  SACRIFICE 

2.  The  Maiden  promised  in  Marriage,  but  not 
exposed  to  the  Monster.  The  King  of  Roumania 
promised  his  daughter  to  whomsoever  would  kill  the 
dragon  which  devastated  his  lands.  Here,  too,  an 
impostor  took  the  credit  of  the  hero's  deeds,  but  was 
found  out  in  time.  The  monster  in  an  Esthonian 
story  had  a  body  like  an  ox,  legs  like  a  frog's,  with  a 
huge  tail,  and  eyes  .that  drew  men  to  destruction.  It 
exterminated  men  and  women,  and  nothing  could 
destroy  it  but  Solomon's  seal.  This  the  hero 
obtained  from  the  enchantress  who  guarded  it,  killed 
the  monster,  and  won  half  the  kingdom  and  the 
king's  daughter.  Later  the  enchantress  transformed 
him  to  an  eagle,  and  separated  him  from  his  wife,  to 
whom,  however,  he  was  restored  by  the  good  offices 
of  a  friendly  sorcerer.  Indian  tales  usually  replace 
the  dragon  by  a  man-eating  rakshasi.  Thus  Champa 
Dal  and  Sahasra  Dal  arrive  at  a  town,  plunged  in 
grief  A  rakshasi  would  have  depopulated  it,  but  the 
king  pleaded  for  mercy,  and  it  was  agreed  that  one 
victim  should  be  placed  in  the  temple  every  night. 
On  hearing  this  the  friends  offered  to  spend  the  night 
there.  Sahasra  had  the  blood  of  a  rakshasi  in  his 
veins,  so  the  monster  had  no  power  over  him,  and 
fell  before  his  onslaught.  Having  cut  off  her  head,  he 
lay  down  to  sleep.  Now  the  king  had  promised  half 
his  kingdom  and  his  daughter  to  the  slayer  of  the 
rakshasi.  Some  woodcutters,  passing  the  temple, 
looked  in  and  saw  the  monster  dead.  One  took  the 
head,  the  others  each  a  limb,  and  claimed  the  reward. 
Suspicion  was  aroused,  and  Sahasra  received  the 
reward.  The  woodcutters  were  not  punished.  In  a 
variant  from  Kashmir  the  heroes  are  brothers,  and 
the  impostor  is  the  temple-sweeper,  who  is  later 
outwitted  by  the  real  hero,  who  wins  the  promised 

dragon  which  haunted  a  hill  near  the  town,  till  one  day,  having 
devoured  a  student,  it  became  so  thirsty  that  it  drank  till  it  burst  ! 
— E.  Gerard,  ii.  269. 


MIKUMWISS  391 

princess.  So  in  a  Persian  tale  Ferid  kills  the  dragon, 
and  the  king-  keeps  his  promise  by  giving-  him  his 
daughter  s  hand  ;  while  the  Persian  History  of  Nassar 
contains  the  incident  of  the  gratitude  of  certain  fairies 
to  Nassar  and  their  determination  to  kill  a  dragon 
and  let  him  have  the  reward.  This  dragon  had 
destroyed  many  by  its  fiery  breath,  and  the  king, 
who  had  no  offspring,  had  promised  to  abdicate  in 
favour  of  its  slayer.  The  fairies,  having  dropped  half 
a  mountain  on  the  dragon's  body,  gave  its  head  to 
Nassar,  who  was  immediately  crowned  king  on 
appearing  with  this  trophy.  In  a  Kabyle  story  the 
king's  daughter  is  brought  into  closer  relationship 
with  the  monster — a  seven-headed  serpent — because 
she  has  to  bring  it  food  at  regular  intervals.  A 
hero  kills  the  serpent  and  wins  the  princess,  but  is 
afterwards  turned  to  stone,  and,  as  in  the  tales  of 
the  Perseus  type,  restored  by  his  brother.  A  similar 
story  is  found  among  the  Red  Indians.  Mikumwiss 
came  to  a  village  whose  chief  had  a  lovely  daughter. 
She  was  offered  to  the  hero  on  condition  that  he 
should  kill  a  huge  horned  dragon  who  had  killed 
many  suitors.  Mikumwiss  put  a  log  before  the 
dragon's  den  and  danced  a  magic  dance.  Out  came 
the  dragon's  head  and  rested  on  the  log;  with  one 
blow  of  his  axe  the  hero  severed  it  from  its  body,  and 
carrying  it  to  the  chief,  was  set  several  other  tasks  in 
which  he  proved  equally  successful,  and  at  last  won 
the  girl  as  his  wife.^ 

It  is  not  unreasonable  to  suppose  that  such  tales 
as  those  in  the  second  group  are  (as  far  as  the  maiden 
is  concerned)  survivals  of  an  early  form  of  the  story 
in  which  the  chief's  daughter  is  given  to  him  who 
kills  some  obnoxious  monster.  Such  a  story  comes 
from  South  Africa,  where  suicide  or  sudden  death  is 

1  Kirby,  ii.  237  ;  Day,  p.  73  ;  cf.  Temple,  i.  17  ;  Steele  and  Temple, 
p.  138  ;  Neschebi,  ii.  291  ;  Clouston,  E.R.^  p.  142;  Riviere,  p.  193  ; 
Leland,  A.L.^  p.  85. 


392  THE  DRAGON  SACRIFICE 

frequently  ascribed  to  the  victim's  having-  seen  an 
incanti,  a  kind  of  water-spirit,  the  sight  of  which 
causes  death.  A  chiefs  son  saw  one  and  died,  so 
did  the  brave  general  whom  he  sent  against  it,  and 
all  his  magicians  could  not  overcome  it.  Finally  a 
doctor  came  from  afar,  and,  hearing  the  state  of 
affairs,  begged  to  be  shown  the  haunt  of  the  incanti. 
He  made  medicine,  put  it  in  the  incantis  pool,  and 
no  one  ever  saw  that  incanti  again.  Then  he  married 
the  chiefs  daughter  and  was  a  great  man  among  that 
people.^ 

Meanwhile  we  note  many  tales  in  which  a  criminal 
is  pardoned  if  he  succeeds  in  slaying  a  monster. 
These  tales  are  usually  in  the  form  of  a  local  tradition, 
with  names  and  dates.  Thus  Harald  was  exiled 
from  Norway,  and  took  refuge  in  Bysance,  where  he 
killed  a  man,  and,  for  punishment,  was  exposed  as 
victim  of  a  dragon  which  he  slew ;  then,  returning  to 
Norway,  was  made  king.  A  Swiss  tradition  tells 
how  a  dragon  ravaged  the  land,  till  a  smith,  con- 
demned to  death,  was  offered  a  free  pardon  if  he  slew 
it.  Many  such  stories  are  current  in  France,  as  at 
Niort,  where  the  criminal  was  a  deserter  condemned 
to  death  in  1589.  He  covered  his  face  with  a  mask 
to  keep  off  the  dragon's  breath,  but  was  asphyxiated. 
A  monument  was  erected  to  him,  which  was  still 
surviving  in  1788.  Sometimes  the  stories  take  the 
form  of  one  told  at  Rouen.  St  Romain  wished  to 
destroy  the  dragon,  and  begged  the  help  of  a 
condemned  prisoner,  who,  for  that  help,  was  to 
obtain  pardon.  The  saint  bound  the  monster  with 
his  stole,  when  it  was  easily  killed.^    In  the  Chinese 

^  Cf.  the  numerous  stories  where,  before  winning  his  bride,  the 
hero  has  to  perform  many  tasks  set  by  her  or  by  her  father.  Such 
ideas  arose  out  of  savage  custom  ;  e.g.^  no  Dyak  woman  will  marry  a 
man  till  he  has  taken  so  many  heads.  Ling  Roth,  ii.  164,  166.  See 
p.  17.     Folk-Lore,  iii.  356  (Bantu). 

2  Salverte,  ii.  328  ;  Revue  des  Trad.,  1886,  p.  482  ;  Acad.  Celt., 
V.  52  ;  ibid.,  iv.  312. 


MYTHICAL  MONSTERS  393 

tale  already  cited,  the  daughters  of  criminals  were 
given  to  the  dragon. 

Many  stories  from  all  parts  of  the  world  speak  of 
territories  ravaged  by  monstrous  animals.  Take  a 
Celtic  instance  first.  In  Lough  Mask  was  an 
anghisky,  or  water-horse,  which  ate  up  children  and 
pregnant  women,  till  it  was  destroyed  by  a  monk, 
about  twenty  years  ago}  This  reminds  us  of  the 
Scandinavian  water-sprites,  who  take  monstrous 
forms,  and  require  a  human  victim  every  year. 
From  Mongolia  comes  a  story  of  two  serpents  which 
shut  off  the  water-supply  until  the  promise  of  a  yearly 
victim  was  made.  One  year  it  fell  on  the  khan.  His 
son  took  his  place,  and  accompanied  by  a  poor  man's 
son,  overheard  the  serpents  describe  how  they  could 
be  slain.  In  another  Mongol  tale  the  Dzalmaus 
devoured  men  and  cattle  till  the  hedgehog,  who  was 
then  a  bey,  overcame  him  by  sticking  in  his  throat 
and  refusing  to  come  out  till  the  monster  made  terms. 
Pausanias  reports  two  such  stories  from  Boeotia  :  one 
of  a  triton,  who  ate  beasts  and  men  till  the  people 
compounded  for  a  yearly  sacrifice,  and  finally  slew 
him,  as  in  Japan,  after  giving  him  wine  ;  and  one  of  a 
dragon,  who  devastated  the  land  till  Zeus  advised  a 
yearly  victim  to  be  given.     Cleostratus,  being  chosen 

^  Celtic  monsters  have,  in  fact,  a  penchant  for  pretty  young 
women,  who,  in  many  parts  of  the  Highlands,  will  not  pass  their 
supposed  dwellings  by  night,  and  even  by  day  do  so  in  fear  and 
trembling.  A  story  from  Raasay  combines  this  cycle  and  the  spit 
incident  of  the  Cyclops'  cycle.  A  sea-horse  lived  in  a  loch  in  the 
island,  and  devoured  a  man's  daughter.  The  father  roasted  a  sow, 
the  smell  of  which  attracted  the  monster,  who  sallied  forth  to  devour 
it  between  an  avenue  of  stones  which  prevented  him  running  off  to 
right  or  left.  Meanwhile  the  man  hid  behind  a  wall,  and,  seizing  a 
spit  which  he  had  left  in  the  fire,  attacked  the  monster,  and  slew  it. 
Wall  and  avenue  used  to  be  pointed  out  as  a  proof  of  the  story's 
truth. — Boswell's  Life  of  Johnson^  p.  320  (Croker's  edition,  i860). 
Many  Celtic  lochs  are  believed  to  require  a  yearly  victim — memory 
of  the  human  sacrifice  once  paid  to  the  spirit  of  the  lake.  Cf. 
instances  in  Rhys,  Celtic  Folk-Lore^  i.  243. 


394  THE  DRAGON  SACRIFICE 

first,  was  given  a  spiked  cuirass  by  Menestratus,  and 
the  spikes  tore  the  monster's  vitals.  In  an  Indian 
tale  a  scorpion  as  big"  as  a  goat  is  constrained  by  a 
lama  to  be  content  with  an  occasional  offering  instead 
of  destroying  the  Sutlaj  valley  once  for  all.  The 
Sea-Dyaks  have  a  curious  story  of  a  deluge  being 
caused  by  men  killing  a  monstrous  boa ;  while  from 
New  Guinea  comes  a  tale  of  a  vast  demon  who  ate  a 
whole  village  at  a  meal.  One  woman  hid  in  a  cave, 
and  there  had  a  son,  who  afterwards  killed  the 
monster  and  became  chief  of  the  land.^  A  Dindje 
(North  America)  tale  resembles  the  Mongolian.  A 
monstrous  serpent  deprived  the  people  of  food  by 
keeping  back  all  the  fish,  till  Etsiege  destroyed  it  by 
magic  power,  and  found  its  den  full  of  fish.  Among 
the  Eskimo  it  is  told  how  a  monstrous  reptile  ravaged 
the  country,  but  was  killed  by  a  youth,  its  carcase 
serving  the  people  for  food.  As  in  New  Guinea,  a 
huge  serpent  swallowed  whole  Ainu  villages,  till  at 
last  it  was  cut  to  pieces,  when  stinging  ants  issued 
from  it,  and  have  remained  in  Japan  ever  since.  A 
mighty  trout  in  another  Ainu  tale  does  the  same,  and 
even  now  the  Ainu  think  that  such  creatures  haunt 
lakes  and  emerge  at  intervals  for  a  feast  on  human 
flesh.  A  few  hundred  years  ago  one  was  found 
dead  on  the  shore  of  Lake  Chitose.  It  had  died 
of  indigestion  after  swallowing  a  deer,  horns  and 
all!  2 

Having  arrived  at  this  point,  it  seems  possible  to 

^  A  Melanesian  story  affords  a  close  parallel  to  this.  A  boy  had 
a  pet  snake  which  grew  and  grew  and  developed  man-eating  tastes, 
devouring  the  old  village,  with  the  exception  of  one  woman,  who  hid 
in  a  hole  and  gave  birth  to  two  sons.  These  afterwards  destroyed 
the  whole  brood  of  this  serpent,  including  two  of  its  offspring  which 
had  become  the  terror  of  the  country. — Codrington,  p.  403. 

2  F.LJ.,  ii.  61.  Thorpe,  N.M.,  ii.  20.  Busk,  p.  18 ;  F.LJ., 
iii.  312.  Pausanias,  bk.  ix.  Revue  des  Traditions^  1884,  p.  431. 
Ling  Roth,  i.  301.  Romilly,  p.  120.  Petitot,  p.  ^^.  Rink,  p.  117. 
Batchelor,  pp.  201,  279. 


PREHISTORIC  MONSTERS  395 

arrange  the  ideas  underlying  these  folk-tales  in  some 
kind  of  order  as  follows,  (i)  In  former  times  certain 
places  were  liable  to  the  attack  of  monsters.  (2)  The 
monster  is  got  rid  of  by  strategy,  or  by  the  efforts  of 
a  brave  man — a  criminal,  or  a  hero  who  would  win  the 
king's  daughter.^  (3)  Or  the  monster  agrees  to  forego 
his  ravages  on  condition  that  a  recurring  sacrifice  is 
made  him.  This  is  sometimes  done  as  the  result  of 
divine  advice.  (4)  The  sacrificial  victim  is  rescued  by 
a  hero,  who  kills  the  monster  and  marries  her.  This 
is  the  motif  of  the  stories  with  which  our  study 
began  ;  it  easily  lent  itself  to  artistic  treatment,  with 
other  incidents  gradually  accumulating  round  it. 

Had  these  ideas  any  basis  in  fact,  and  had  the' 
monstrous  dragons,  serpents,  tritons,  hydras  and 
chimcBras  dire,  a  real  existence  at  some  far-off  period  ? 
Besides  being  at  the  mercy  of  many  species  of 
animals,  existing  or  extinct,  early  men  may  have 
encountered  belated  survivals  of  the  "dragons  of  the 
prime  "^ — Pterodactyls,  Dinosaurs,  Plesiosauri,  Ich- 
thyosauri.'^ It  needed  little  imagination,  as  time 
went  on,  to  resolve  these  into  the  seven-headed 
dragons  which  bear  so  striking  a  resemblance  to 
them.  Their  size,  their  ferocity,  their  ravages,  must 
have  made  an  indelible  impression  on  the  minds  of 
early  men.  This,  handed  on  from  age  to  age,  took 
the  form  of  legend,  with  which  was  mingled  other 
episodes  borrowed  from  past  or  existing  custom,  and 
so  the  folk-tale  would  be  created.     Among  savages,  it 

^  This  incident  is  found  in  tales  outside  the  Dragon  cycle.  Cf. 
those  in  which  a  coward  is  reputed  a  hero,  and  is  set  to  rid  the 
country  of  a  wild  boar  and  a  unicorn  (Lorraine),  a  crocodile  (Cam- 
bodia), an  elephant  (Kashmir),  a  giant,  etc.  (European  and  Eastern 
tales).     Cosquin,  i.  96,  loi. 

2  It  has  been  thought  that  animal  forms  of  a  primitive  type  may 
still  exist,  e.g.,  on  the  isolated  tableland  of  Roraima  in  British  Guiana. 
Im  Thurn,  p.  82.  Birds  like  Sindbad's  roc  are  known  now  to  have 
existed,  from  the  discovery  of  a  huge  ^g'g,  semi-fossilised,  in  Mada- 
gascar.    A  cast  of  it  is  in  the  British  Museum. — Reade,  p.  471. 


396  THE  DRAGON  SACRIFICE 

should  be  noted,  large  and  savage  animals  of  which 
their  ancestors  have  had  experience,  are  exaggerated 
into  monsters.  The  Maoris  have  stories  of  vast 
lizards,  the  terror  of  the  people,  which  are  really  the 
crocodiles  of  the  land  from  which  they  migrated,  and 
these  have  given  rise  to  a  tradition  of  other  fabulous 
monsters  or  Taniwhas,  living  in  the  sea  and  carrying 
off  mortals  whenever  they  can.^  Our  suggestion  also 
receives  some  support  from  Australian  tales,  in  which 
some  animals  figure  as  being  much  bigger  than  they 
are  now,  and  living  on  human  flesh.  The  tribes  held 
a  meeting  to  discuss  how  to  get  rid  of  one  of  these — 
a  monstrous  iguana,  who  killed  men  by  his  poison- 
bag.  The  snake  relieved  him  of  this  by  strategy ; 
hence  the  snake  is  now  poisonous  and  the  lizard 
harmless.^  Again,  certain  monstrous  snakes  are 
believed  to  have  existed  long  ago,  and  to  have  been 
destroyed  by  the  tribe  of  a  black  fellow  whose  bride 
was  killed  by  one  of  them.  They  threw  pieces  of  gum 
to  the  snakes  ;  gum  kept  their  mouths  closed,  and  so 
they  became  an  easy  prey.  Even  in  Ireland  we  find 
such  traditions.^  The  valley  in  which  the  well  of 
Araght  is  situated  was  formerly  haunted  by  a  huge 
eel,  which  devoured  man  and  beast,  till  St  Araght  slew 
it  on  the  spot  where  the  well  sprung  up.  Dr  Tylor 
remarks  on  traditions  which  contain  the  memory  of 
the  huge  animals  of  the  Quaternary  period,  and  refers 
to  the  Red  Indian  legend  of  a  huge  elk  like  an 
elephant,  probably  the  mammoth,  and  to  the  Brazilian 
stories  of  a  shaggy  monster  like  the  orang-outang, 
probably  the  distorted  remembrance  of  an  extinct 
ape  found  in  Post  Pliocene  beds  in  Brazil* 


1  Clarke,  pp.  79,  184  ;  Shortland,  p.  -j^.     The  Maoris  came  from 
the  Philippines,  where  saurians  abound. 

2  Parker,  2nd  series,  pp.  61,  76. 

•^  Wood- Martin,  Elder  Faiths  of  Ireland,  ii.  87. 
^  Early   Hist   Mankind,   p.  303  seq.     Cf.   Col.    Hamilton  Smith, 
Nat.  Hist.  Hum.  Spec,  p.  104. 


RATIONALE  OF  SACRIFICE  397 

With  these  qualifying"  circumstances,  the  dragon 
of  folk-lore  may  be  said  to  have  had  a  real  existence, 
and  to  have  been  a  terror  to  mankind,  ravaging  and 
devouring,  as  many  of  the  stories  relate.^  As  their 
supreme  enemies,  men  saw  that  the  only  way  of 
escape  was  by  destroying  such  monstrous  creatures 
as  terrified  them,  either  by  stratagem,  or  by  valour, 
or  by  coming-  to  terms  with  them.  As  to  this  last 
method  it  may  easily  have  been  thought  that  if  some 
chosen  individual  were  freely  offered  at  regular  inter- 
vals to  the  monster,  he  would  be  satisfied.  He 
devoured  human  flesh  ;  clearly,  then,  ''feed  the  brute" 
was  indicated.  Sacrifice  is  largely  at  bottom  simply 
the  feeding  of  g-hosts  or  gods.  Thus  the  victim 
would  sooner  or  later  be  regarded  as  sacrificial. 
Even  in  such  a  late  myth  as  that  of  the  Minotaur, 
who  was  at  last  slain  by  Theseus,  the  Athenians  are 
bidden  by  Minos  to  send  the  children  as  food  for 
the  Minotaur.  Yet  they  were  sacrificial  victims,  too.^ 
It  must  be  noted  also  that,  in  some  cases,  the 
dragon  is  said  to  have  come  from  time  to  time  to 
ravage  the  country.^  This  may  have  suggested  a 
regularly  recurring  sacrifice  (the  maiden  offered  each 
year),  ordained,  as  was  later  supposed,  by  divine 
command.  The  stories,  at  all  events,  are  quite  clear 
upon  these  points,  relating,  first,  the  g-eneral  attack 
by  the  monster ;  and,  second,  the  sacrifice  by  which 
that  attack  was  commuted. 

^  If  fear  is  one  of  the  roots  of  worship,  nothing  could  have  inspired 
it  so  much  as  huge  animals.  This  feeling  of  terror  survives  in  the 
form  of  awe  and  mystery  in  serpent  worship  wherever  found. 

2  Apollodorus,  iii.  158.  The  daughter  of  Minos  supplied  Theseus 
with  a  sword  to  slay  the  monster,  and  a  clue  for  the  labyrinth,  as  all 
ogres'  daughters  do,  and  then  fled  with  him.  Plutarch,  Theseus, 
p.  19. 

3  The  Fjort  say  that  they  do  not  sacrifice  to  the  sea,  but  that 
sometimes  when  Chicamassi  (the  spirit  in  the  sea)  is  vexed,  she  comes 
ashore  and  takes  one  of  twins  or  triplets,  and  drowns  it  in  the  sea. 
— Dennett,  p.  8. 


398  THE  DRAGON  SACRIFICE 

Reference  has  just  been  made  to  Australian  myths, 
but  the  actual  ceremonies  of  the  Wollunqua  snake 
totem  clan  of  the  Warramungfa  tribe  of  North  Central 
Australia  also  give  some  support  to  the  views  here 
set  forth.  Contrary  to  totem-custom  the  snake  "is 
purely  mythical,  and  except  for  the  one  gfreat  pro- 
genitor of  the  totemic  group,  is  not  supposed  to  exist 
at  the  present  day,"  while  the  ceremonies  in  question 
have  a  purpose  different  from  all  other  totem-clan 
ceremonies,  which  are  intended  to  increase  the  totem 
species.  The  Wollunqua  is  a  huge  serpent,  so  long 
that  it  could  reach  into  the  skies.  It  now  lives  away 
in  a  lonely  valley  of  the  Murchison  range,  but  the 
natives  fear  that  it  might  come  out  of  its  hiding-place 
and  attack  them.  It  has  done  so  before,  but  was 
driven  off,  after  killing  several  natives.  So  runs 
tradition ;  the  ceremonies  have  for  their  purpose 
**most  probably  that  of  propitiating  the  mythic 
beast."  The  Wollunqua  is  pleased  when  they  are 
performed,  displeased  when  they  are  omitted.  They 
consist  of  a  representation  of  the  ancient  wanderings 
of  the  animal ;  then  a  mound  is  made  and  on  it  the 
animal  itself  is  depicted.  The  members  of  the  clan 
walk  round  and  round  the  mound,  stroking  its  base 
with  boughs ;  they  sing  and  shout  beside  it ;  finally, 
they  attack  it  with  wild  fury  and  hack  it  to  pieces. 
The  mound,  with  the  snake's  representation  upon  it, 
is  supposed  to  please  him,  and  make  him  wriggle  with 
satisfaction ;  he  is  propitiated  and  will  remain  in  his 
hiding-place  without  coming  out  to  attack  and  eat 
the  natives.  But  as  he  was  once  driven  away  so  the 
ceremonies  coerce  besides  propitiating  him,  and  the 
attack  on  the  mound  reminds  him,  presumably,  of 
this.  The  Australian  natives  have  hardly,  if  at  all, 
attained  the  idea  of  sacrificial  offerings ;  these  pro- 
pitiatory ceremonies  are  of  the  nature  of  sympathetic 
magic,  but  had  sacrifice  been  known  among  them 
they  would  doubtless  have  offered  a  victim,  possibly 


AN  INCIDENT  IN  PREHISTORIC  LIFE      399 

human,  to  the  mythic  snake.  They  have,  at  least, 
reached  the  idea  that  a  monstrous  animal  can  be 
prevented  from  attacking-  them  by  propitiatory  rites. ^ 
Stripped  of  their  later  details,  our  stories  reveal  a 
tragic  picture  of  the  life  of  early  man.  His  hazardous 
and  laborious  existence,  already  shadowed  by  super- 
stition and  fear,  is  made  more  dark  by  the  occasional 
appearance  of  some  fearful  monster,  which  tears  and 
devours  some  of  the  feeble  g"roup  and  then  retires  to 
its  remote  haunts — marsh  or  forest  or  river.  This 
happens  from  time  to  time  ;  the  problem  comes  to  be 
how  to  save  the  other  members  of  the  group,  and  yet 
propitiate  this  angry  monster,  already  dimly  con- 
ceived as  worshipful.  The  primitive  council  suggests 
what  has  been  proved  efficacious  in  the  case  of 
enemies,  or  of  other  worshipful  beings — ^viz.,  propitia- 
tion by  a  gift.  If  that  is  done,  then,  perhaps,  the 
monster  will  rest  satisfied  for  a  time.  But  it  must  be 
a  human  victim,  and  as,  presumably,  women  and 
children  have  mostly  fallen  victims,  it  must  be  a  help- 
less girl.^  The  choice  falls  without  mercy ;  the  girl, 
decked  with  the  best  ornaments  of  the  period  is  torn 
from  her  hut  or  rock  shelter;  neither  prayers  nor 
cries  avail  her ;  and  she  is  carried  off  to  the  edge  of 
the  monster's  haunt.  There  she  is  left  alone,  bound 
to  a  tree  or  rock  to  await  her  horrible  death.  Para- 
lysed by  terror,  she  is  yet  submissive  to  her  fate, 
perhaps  dimly  conscious  that  she  is  dying  for  the 
sake  of  others.  Parched  with  thirst,  weak  with  fear, 
her  eyes  see  the  horrible  monster  emerg^ing-  from  its 
haunts — gliding  or  crawling  quickly  towards  her.  A 
useless  struggle,  an  agonised  cry,  and  all  is  over ;  the 
monster  carries  the  body  away  to  glut  his  appetite  at 
leisure.  But,  perhaps,  some  man,  braver  than  his 
fellows,  dares  to  attack  the  monster  before  it  seizes  its 

1  Spencer    and    Gillen,  Northern   Tribes  of  Central  Australia^ 
chap.  vii. 

-  Cf.  the  stories  of  a  girl  stolen  by  a  serpent  in  chap.  ix. 


400  THE  DRAGON  SACRIFICE 

victim  ;  perhaps  he  perishes  ;  perhaps  he  is  successful, 
for  even  with  such  rude  weapons  as  he  had,  primitive 
man  did  not  fear  to  attack  the  largest  and  fiercest 
animals.  And  then  the  trembling-  victim  is  released, 
to  be  bestowed  by  her  relations,  let  us  hope,  upon  the 
brave  rescuer.  The  sacrifice  is  no  fancy  picture ;  it 
must  often  have  taken  place ;  there  is  no  reason  why 
an  occasional  rescue  should  not  also  have  occurred, 
and  when  it  did  it  would,  of  course,  become  historical, 
mythical,  the  subject  of  folk-story  for  untold  ages  to 
come. 

The  stories  also  throw  light  upon  the  sacrificial 
victim,  (i)  Sometimes  it  is  a  criminal  who  is  sent 
out  to  battle  with  the  monster ;  in  the  Chinese  tale 
the  daughters  of  criminals  are  sacrificed.  But  the 
criminal,  thus  glorified  into  a  hero,  must  have 
originally  been  the  sacrificial  victim.  Wherever 
human  sacrifice  can  be  traced,  prisoners  and  slaves 
are  among  the  victims.  Thus  the  Garo  hill  tribes  of 
Bengal  select  victims  from  the  prisoners  made  in  their 
forays ;  the  Dyaks,  when  erecting  the  first  post  of  a 
large  house,  place  a  slave  girl  under  it ;  prisoners  and 
criminals  are  sacrificed  at  the  Gold  Coast  customs  ;  a 
young  slave  girl  of  light  complexion  is  offered  to  the 
spirit  of  the  river  bar  among  the  Brass  River  natives  ; 
while  in  ancient  times  the  practice  was  common 
enough.-^  Finally,  the  position  of  the  criminal  as  hero 
is  explained  by  the  fact  that  the  sacrificed  criminal  or 
slave  often  became  a  local  deity.  ^ 

(2)  In  most  of  the  tales  a  maiden  is  the  victim. 
One  has  been  chosen  from  each  family,  until  the  lot 
has  fallen  on  the  king  s  daughter,  or  she  is  the  one 

1  J.A.I.,  ii.  394.  St  John,  i.  46.  Ellis,  p.  170.  Miss  Kingsley, 
p.  484.  Clement  of  Alexandria  describes  how  Aristomenes  offered 
five  hundred  prisoners  of  war  to  Zeus  Ithomatos. — Protrep.^  p.  36.  For 
similar  sacrifices  among  the  ancient  Celts,  see  Caesar,  De  Bell.  Gal., 
vi.  16. 

2  Many  minor  Hindu  gods  have  originated  in  this  way. 


THE  NOBLE  VICTIM  401 

who  is  chosen  first.  Women  and  children  would 
more  readily  fall  victims  to  any  noxious  animal. 
Hence  would  arise  the  idea  that  a  woman — but 
especially  a  virgin,  as  being  most  valuable^ — should  be 
offered,  either  to  be  eaten,  or,  as  was  thought  later,  as 
a  victim  of  the  monster's  lusts.  The  selection  of  the 
chiefs  or  king's  daughter  in  the  tales  did  not  arise 
from  the  dramatic  value  of  such  a  choice,  but  from 
that  aspect  of  sacrifice  so  well  expressed  in  Tennyson's 
poem,  of  giving  what  is  dearest  and  best.  Dr  Frazer 
has  abundantly  proved  the  importance  of  the  chief  or 
king,  or  of  a  member  of  his  family,  to  the  community 
as  a  sacrificial  victim  in  times  of  trouble.^  Thus  the 
priest  of  Artemis  demanded  from  Agamemnon  his 
daughter  Iphigenia  to  atone  for  his  guilt.  Sanchoni- 
athon  says  it  was  usual  for  rulers  in  ancient  times  to 
sacrifice  the  most  beloved  of  their  children  to  the 
offended  gods.  In  China  we  have  the  story  of  the 
Emperor  Tang  (1766  B.C.)  proposing  to  sacrifice 
himself  in  a  time  of  continued  drought ;  while  in 
Scandinavia  the  sacrifice  of  King  Domaldi  during  a 
famine,  of  the  king  of  Vermland  in  time  of  dearth,  of 
Haco's  son,  are  instances  of  what  was  a  usual 
practice  then.  Among  the  Phoenicians  and  Cartha- 
ginians young  men  of  high  rank  voluntarily  offered  to 
sacrifice  themselves  on  behalf  of  their  fatherland,  just 
as  the  victim  was  given  to  the  dragon  to  save  her 
people.^  These  ideas,  current  also  among  men  of  an 
earlier  time,  must  have  prompted  them  to  offer  the 
child  of  whomsoever  was  recognised  as  head  among 
them,  later  transformed  into  the  king  of  folk-tale.  A 
legend  from  Samoa  offers  a  curious  illustration  of  this. 
A  human  victim  had  to  be  offered  daily  to  the  Sun,  the 
body  being  laid  on  a  tree  so  that  he  might  devour  it. 

^  The  same  idea  of  royal  value  is  at  the  root  of  stories  in  which  the 
king's  daughter  is  stolen  by  a  giant,  dragon,  etc. 

^  Legge,  Rel.  of   China,    p.    54.      Grimm,    Teut.    Myth.,   i.  46. 
Mallet,  Northerjt  Antiq.,  p.  134.     G.  Allen,  Attis,  p.  70. 

2  C 


402  THE  DRAGON  SACRIFICE 

Ui  and  her  brother  Luamae  fled  to  Mami'a  to  escape 
death,  but  there  too  the  custom  existed,  there  too 
the  population  was  dwindling-  fast  in  consequence  of 
it.  It  came  to  be  Luamae  s  turn,  but  his  sister  took 
his  place.  When  the  Sun  saw  her  he  fell  in  love  with 
her,  took  her  to  live  with  him,  and  never  again 
demanded  a  victim.  Another  version,  however,  makes 
Ui  the  king's  daughter,  whom  he  gave  up  as  a  victim 
to  put  an  end  to  the  practice,  thus  making-  her  the 
saviour  of  her  people.  Still  more  clearly  is  it  seen  in 
the  Scots  tale  (derived  from  Scandinavian  sources)  of 
Assipattle  and  the  Mester  Stoor-Worm.  The  great 
Stoor-Worm  was  coming  to  ravage  the  land,  when 
the  sorcerer  advised  that  he  should  be  fed  once  a 
week  with  seven  virgins.  This  went  on  so  long-  that 
the  people  saw  there  would  soon  be  no  women  left  in 
the  land ;  accordingly  counsel  was  taken,  and  the 
sorcerer  now  advised  that  the  king's  daughter  should 
be  offered  as  the  one  and  only  means  of  pacifying  the 
dragon.  Sorrowfully  the  king  consented :  "  She  is 
my  dearest  on  earth.  Yet  if  her  death  can  save  the 
land,  let  her  die."  Fortunately,  however,  the  despised 
Assipattle  slew  the  dragon  before  the  sacrifice  was 
made,  and  won  the  princess  for  his  wife.-^ 

Here  we  have  what  we  may  call  the  historical 
basis  of  our  tales  plainly  set  forth  in  a  highly  dramatic 
way.  It  illustrates  what  must  often  have  happened 
— a  tract  of  land  ravaged  by  a  monstrous  animal ; 
the  terrified  people  believing  that  submission  at  the 
cost  of  an  occasional  victim  would  save  them ;  ^  and 
as  things  grew  worse,  a  more  valuable  victim  selected. 
Nor  is  there  any  reason  why  the  dramatic  rescue  may 
not  have  been  founded  on  fact — the  rescuer  coming 

1  Turner,  Samoa^  p.  201.     Douglas,  p.  58. 

2  Cf.  the  Red  Indian  practice  of  propitiating  rattle-snakes  with 
tobacco.  Sometimes  the  medicine-man  speaks  to  the  snake,  telling  it 
of  the  sacrifice,  and  returns  saying  that  there  is  now  peace  between  his 
people  and  the  snakes. — Schoolcraft,  iii.  231. 


SACRIFICE  TO  REPTILES  403 

at  the  opportune  moment  and  slaying  the  monster. 
In  the  Senegambian  tale  already  mentioned  the 
serpent  is  represented  as  a  divinity,  and  we  may 
readily  suppose  that  all  such  monsters  in  early  times 
were  regarded  as  ''supernatural"  ;  their  victims  being 
thus  real  sacrifices.  In  this  case,  the  divine  serpent, 
robbed  of  his  prey,  his  offering,  brings  a  judgment 
upon  the  village.  Human  sacrifices  to  gods,  to 
ghosts,  to  nature  spirits,  have  been  all  too  common. 
Actual  instances,  such  as  those  of  our  stories,  are 
few,  because  in  later  times  such  monstrous  animals 
became  extinct,  and  ordinary  animals  were  usually 
merged  into  existing  gods,  for  whom  the  victims  were 
slain.  But  there  are  some  authentic  cases  of  victims 
exposed  to  the  attack  of  serpents  and  other  worshipful 
''monsters"  —  the  descendants  of  our  folk- tale 
dragons.  Plutarch  speaks  of  women  (criminals) 
exposed  on  the  banks  of  the  Indus  to  serpent  gods ; 
the  Livonians  and  Lithuanians  are  said  by  mediaeval 
writers  to  have  offered  the  most  beautiful  of  their 
captives  to  "dragon-gods";  and  sacrifice  to  a  ser- 
pent, with  a  cannibal  feast  on  the  victim,  is  said 
to  be  a  Negro  Voodoo  rite.  In  New  Calabar  the 
shark  is  a  divinity,  and  every  seven  years  a  light- 
coloured  child  is  solemnly  thrown  into  the  water 
as  an  offering,  while  the  shark  is  asked  to  intercede 
with  the  spirit  of  the  waters  to  keep  the  entrance 
to  the  river  open  so  that  ships  may  come  and 
trade.  Similar  offerings  of  a  young  slave  girl  of 
the  lightest  complexion  are  made  by  the  Brass  River 
natives,  as  we  have  already  seen  ;  and,  until  ten  years 
ago,  human  sacrifices  to  the  sacred  crocodiles  of  the 
rivers  of  the  Niger  Delta  were  not  uncommon.  The 
Eboes  (a  W.  African  people)  said  that  the  most 
acceptable  offering  at  the  shrine  of  a  sacred  iguana 
was  a  human  victim.  Some  evidence  exists  to  show 
that  such  sacrifices  were  made  in  ancient  Peru,  but 
it  is  of  doubtful  authenticity.      In  ancient   Mexico 


404  THE  DRAGON  SACRIFICE 

some  obsolete  sacrifice  to  serpents  (or  a  myth)  may 
have  been  commemorated  in  the  representation  (still 
existing  in  the  traveller  Bullock's  time)  of  a  serpent 
with  jaws  extended  in  the  act  of  swallowing*  a  woman, 
richly  dressed ;  while  a  passage  in  the  Shah-Nameh 
of  Firdausi  may  refer  to  a  similar  practice.  The  poet 
describes  how  Iblis  caused  two  black  serpents  to 
attend  on  King  Zohak  ;  they  had  to  be  fed  daily  with 
the  brains  of  human  victims.  But  when  it  came  to 
the  turn  of  the  sons  of  a  certain  blacksmith  to  be 
slain,  his  opposition  caused  Zohak  to  be  dethroned. 
Erskine  says  that  the  Fijians  at  Vusaratu  showed 
him  a  pool  in  which  lived  an  immense  eel,  to 
which  the  children  of  prisoners  were  offered  in 
sacrifice  and  were  eaten  by  it.  What  is  practically 
human  sacrifice  to  a  shark  is  also  reported  from 
Melanesia.  In  Saa  and  Ulawa,  if  a  sacred  shark 
had  attempted  to  seize  a  man,  who  escaped  from  its 
clutches,  the  people  would  be  so  afraid  of  the  shark's 
anger  that  they  would  throw  the  man  into  the  sea — a 
belief  which  resembles  the  well-known  superstition 
regarding  saving  a  drowning  man,  and  thus  cheating 
the  spirit  of  the  waters  of  his  victim.^  These  examples 
of  actual  sacrifice  to  reptiles  and  monstrous  animals, 
though  few  in  number,  show  once  more  how  fact  and 
folk-tale  coincide. 

In  many  of  the  tales  the  dragon  keeps  back  the 
water-supply,  or  lives  in  a  lake.^  If  the  dragon  of 
folk-lore  has  affinity  with  prehistoric  monsters,  the 
reason  of  this  is  obvious.  Many  of  these  creatures 
had  their  habitat  in  the  water,  and  if  some  isolated 

^  Deane,  Worship  of  the  Serpent^  p.  247.  Grimm,  T.  M.^  p.  45.  St 
John,  Hayti^  p.  193.  Miss  Kingsley,  pp.  484,  501.  Nassau,  p.  93. 
Bullock,  Travels  in  Mexico.  Atkinson's  Firdausi^  pp.  15,41.  Erskine, 
Western  Pacific^  p.  434.     Codrington,  p.  1 79. 

^  Modern  Roumanian  peasants  believe  that  a  lake  near  Herman- 
stadt  is  haunted  by  a  dragon  which  causes  thunder,  and  they  are 
careful  not  to  disturb  the  waters. — E.  Gerard,  ii.  5. 


WATER  DIVINITIES  405 

specimens  survived  in  lake  or  river,  it  would  readily 
be  believed  that  they  were  the  horrible  guardians  of 
the  water,  more  especially  if  some  who  ventured  near 
or  put  out  in  their  frail  craft,  fell  victims  to  their 
ferocity.  We  shall  see  presently  how  such  monsters, 
as  well  as  animals  like  the  serpent  or  crocodile, 
frequently  became  embodiments  of  the  water-divinity 
or  water-spirit,  himself  a  guardian  of  the  water.  The 
actual  sacrifices  just  cited  are  mainly  based  on  the 
idea  of  a  guardianship  of  the  waters  by  serpent, 
shark,  eel,  or  crocodile.  Human  sacrifice  to  a  water- 
spirit  was  not  uncommon,  like  the  old  sacrifice  of  a 
virgin  to  the  Nile  to  obtain  a  plentiful  inundation. 
Here  the  river-god  is  not  an  animal,  though,  no 
doubt,  the  fate  of  the  girl  was  to  be  eaten  by 
crocodiles.^  There  are  also  many  traditional  stories 
of  sacrifice  to  river  divinities  throughout  Europe,  ^.^., 
the  Esthonian  legends  of  little  children  being  offered 
to  Wohhanda,  the  river-god,  occasionally  seen  as  a 
little  man  in  blue  and  yellow  stockings.  In  the  next 
chapter  we  shall  see  that  various  water-beings 
demand  the  child  of  someone  who  trespasses  on 
their  domain.^  Meanwhile  we  note  the  number  of 
stories  in  which  the  victim  must  be  given  before  the 
water-supply  is  granted,  as  well  as  the  group  of  tales 
in  which  a  frog  or  some  other  animal  living  in  a  well 
will  not  allow  a  maiden  to  draw  water  till  she  promises 
to  be  his  wife.^  A  typical  story  current  among  the 
Mongols,  but  derived  from  Indian  sources,  illustrates 
this.  The  time  of  sacrifice  to  the  serpent-gods  in 
order  to  make  them  propitious,  and  thus  hinder  them 
from  cutting  off  the  water  which  irrigated  the  land, 

^  Lane,  Modern  Egyptians^  iii.  131. 

2  Latham,  Descriptive  Ethnology^  i.  418. 

^  Cf.  2i  Kashmir  tale  in  which  the  serpent  guardian  of  the  water 
demands  a  pair  of  human  eyes  from  everyone  who  comes  to  drink. — 
Knowles,  p.  445  ;  and  cf.  p.  90  supra.  See  also  the  Basuto  tale  cited 
on  p.  364,  for  the  idea  in  the  text. 


406  THE  DRAGON  SACRIFICE 

had  arrived.  The  victim  was  chosen,  but  the  khan's 
daughter  fell  in  love  with  him,  and  insisted  on 
being-  sacrificed  along  with  him.  The  serpent-gods 
overheard  this,  and  when  the  pair  were  cast  into  the 
water,  they  delivered  them  and  renounced  the 
sacrifice.^  Here  the  serpents  are  gods,  but  their 
earlier  connection  as  serpents  with  the  water  is  plain. 
They  can  give  or  withhold.  Primitive  men  easily 
persuaded  themselves  that  the  ''dragons  of  the 
prime,"  or  even  water-serpents  or  crocodiles,  had 
actually  power  over  the  waters,  and  over  those  who 
approached  them  too  rashly.  Thus  the  Malagasy 
regard  the  crocodile  as  king  of  the  waters,  and  in  their 
opinion  to  dispute  its  title  would  be  to  expose  them- 
selves to  his  vengeance  and  to  consequent  death. 
Hence,  they  avoid  doing  anything  which  would  offend 
the  animal,  e.^.,  shaking  a  spear  over  a  river,  or 
throwing  any  kind  of  manure  into  the  water. ^  Where 
men  already  believed  in  a  spirit  of  the  waters,  it  was 
easy  to  see  its  embodiment  in  some  of  their  actual 
animal  forms,  which,  as  time  went  on,  became  more 
and  more  mythical ;  like  the  dragons  of  Karen  belief, 
which  dwell  in  the  waters  but  can  take  the  shape 
of  men  and  marry  human  wives, ^  or  the  water-bull 
and  water-horse  of  Celtic  folk-lore,  which  also  take 
human  form,  and  lure  men  and  women  to  their 
haunts. 

Accordingly,  to  universal  folk-beliefs,  water-spirits 
constantly  drown  men,  or  seek  to  draw  down  women 
and    children    beneath    the    waters.^    This    is    the 

^  Miss  Busk,  p.  76. 

2  Ellis,  Hist,  of  Madagascar^  i.  57.  It  is  a  common  belief  that 
defiling  a  sacred  well  or  stream  will  have  serious  results. 

^  Jour.  As.  Soc.  Bengal^  xxxiv.  217. 

*  This  is  a  common  belief  among  the  Finns  (Abercromby,  Pre-  and 
Proto- Historic  Finns,  i.  161),  Russians  (Ralston,  Songs,  p.  148  seq.\ 
Roumanians  and  Saxons  (E.  Gerard,  i.  200 ;  ii.  9),  to  mention  a  few 
European  instances,  and  in  some  cases  the  water-spirit,  in  various 
forms,  seizes  a  man  when  drinking,  and  will  not  let  him  go  till  he  has 


WATER  GUARDIANS  407 

explanation  of  accidental  drowning";  while,  again, 
where  crocodiles  destroy  women  who  come  to  draw 
water,  they  would  easily  become  mythic  monsters 
which  seized  human  victims,  once  the  tribe  or  people 
had  wandered  away  to  other  regions  where  there 
were  no  crocodiles.  We  have  already  seen  this  in  the 
case  of  the  Maoris.  Water-spirits  are  frequently 
represented  as  serpents,  or  as  creatures  half-lizard, 
half-bird,  as  in  Australia,  where  some  natives  believe 
in  a  water-spirit  which  is  a  kind  of  serpent  and  seizes 
the  unwary.^  To  such  a  belief  in  the  guardianship  of 
the  waters  by  a  reptile  or  by  any  monstrous  creature 
which  in  reality  or  in  imagination  tenanted  them,  and 
not  primarily  to  any  storm-myths  and  the  like,  may 
be  ascribed  the  fact  that  the  Vedic  demons  of  droug"ht 
who  keep  back  the  rain  till  they  are  conquered  by 
Indra,  have  a  drag-on  form ;  that  in  Egypt,  Apep,  the 
opponent  of  Ra,  was  represented  as  a  snake  ;  that  in 
North  America  it  is  commonly  believed  that  a 
serpent  dwells  in  the  waters  and  overwhelms  men 
with  them,   until  he  is  overcome  by  the  storm-god, 


promised  to  deliver  him  his  son.  He  must  pay  the  penalty  of  encroach- 
ing on  the  spirit's  territory  by  this  sacrifice.  We  shall  see  instances 
of  this  in  the  next  chapter.  Savages  dislike  looking  into  water,  lest 
the  spirit  of  the  water  seize  their  reflection  and  work  them  harm 
through  it.  Dr  Codrington  (p.  i86)  gives  an  instance  of  a  deep  pool 
in  Valueva,  into  which  no  one  will  dare  to  look  for  this  very  reason  ; 
while  the  Basutos  think  that  crocodiles  have  this  power  over  the 
reflected  image.  In  other  places,  men  will  not  enter  such  a  haunted 
pool.  Some  Australians  fear  a  water-spirit  called  In-guas,  and  will 
not  bathe  in  his  pools  {Trans.  Eth.  Soc.^  iii.  238) ;  but  the  common 
Australian  belief  is  in  a  mythic  water-monster,  curiously  like  the 
Celtic  water-beasts,  called  the  Bun-yip,  who  carries  off"  women  to  his 
retreat,  and  of  whom  some  curious  stories  are  told.  Thus,  when  a 
bold  youth  caught  a  young  Bun-yip,  the  mother,  in  revenge,  caused 
such  a  flood  as  drowned  the  world,  and  turned  men  and  women  into 
black  swans. 

^  B^renger-Feraud,  ii.  49,  53.  In  French  folk-lore  the  Dracos  is 
not  a  dragon,  but  a  water-spirit  who  exacts  a  toll  on  human  life.  Cf, 
Gervase  of  Tilbury,  p.  987. 


408  THE  DRAGON  SACRIFICE 

Michabo.  For  the  same  reason  the  early  Babylonians 
represented  Tiamat,  or  chaos,  as  a  she-dragon 
destroyed  by  the  god  Merodach.^  Mr  Fergfusson,  in 
his  Tree  and  Serpent  Worship,  has  pointed  out  that 
the  chief  characteristic  of  the  serpent  in  the  East  in 
all  ages,  is  its  power  over  wind  and  rain.  These  and 
such-like  mythological  ideas  may  be  traced  back  to  a 
time  when  primeval  monsters,  huge  ophidians  and 
the  like,  were  still  to  be  seen  in  lake  or  river,  and 
claimed  their  quota  of  human  victims  from  those  who 
ventured  near  them.  Stories  which  told  how  a  hero 
had  slain  one  of  them,  became  attached  to  the  gods, 
Indra,  Ra,  Michabo,  the  Japanese  divinity,  or 
Merodach.  So  in  Greek  mythology  Apollo  slays  the 
Python,  and  heroes  like  Perseus  or  Heracles  rescue 
the  maidens  Andromeda  or  Hesione — earlier  Mitre  ken 
being  thus  appropriated  into  the  cycle  of  their 
exploits.  For  the  same  reason,  Scandinavian  and 
Teutonic  mythology  and  poetry  contain  episodes  of 
gods  like  Thor  and  heroes  like  Beowulf  destroying 
dragons.  In  these  as  in  Oriental  folk-lore  the  dragon 
or  serpent  is  often  guardian  of  a  treasure,  as  in 
Greek  mythology  a  dragon  guarded  the  apples 
of  the  Hesperides — an  extension  of  the  idea  that 
primeval  monsters  kept  back  from  men  that  most 
important  natural  treasure- — water.  How  natural 
it  was,  then,  that  the  fabled  Water  of  Life 
should  be  so  carefully  guarded  by  fairy,  giant,  or 
dragon,  in  a  land  that  was  very  far  off,  only  to  be 

1  Rig- Veda,  i.  2,  13.  Brinton,  Myths  of  the  New  World,  p.  139. 
Reville,  Religions  des  Non-civilises,  i.  225.  The  Tiamat  incident 
occurs  in  the  mythological  cycle,  and  introduces  us  to  an  account  of 
creation — the  world  being  formed  out  of  the  fragments  of  Tiamat's 
body.  But  an  earlier  Mcirchen  or  saga  has  supplied  the  material  of 
the  myth,  only  it  has  been  elaborated  in  a  way  which  is  entirely 
wanting  in  similar  sagas  and  Marchen  contained  in  the  Japanese 
sacred  writings. 


THE  DR AGONES  TONGUES  409 

approached  by  him  who  did    not  know  what  fear 


^  Why  should  the  hero  carry  off  the  tongues  of  the  dragon  ? 
Grimm  points  out  that  the  gods  received  select  portions  of  the  victim, 
head,  liver,  heart,  or  tongue.  Hence  being  superior  portions,  the 
slayer  would  naturally  carry  off  one  as  a  trophy.  Teut.  Myth,^  p.  57. 
Cf.  the  stories  in  which  the  murderer  is  told  to  bring  the  child's  heart 
or  liver  ;  he  brings  that  of  some  animal  instead,  and  the  child  is  set 
free  by  him.  See  Miss  Cox's  Ci7iderella^  p.  475.  Frazer,  Golden 
Bough,  ii.  129,  has  suggested  that  cutting  out  the  tongue  may  be  a 
precaution  to  prevent  the  slain  animals  telling  their  fate  to  live 
animals,  and  thus  frightening  them  away.  With  the  ancient  Celts, 
the  tongues  of  men  slain  were  actually  brought  in  by  the  warriors,  so 
that  each  might  show  how  many  had  fallen  to  his  arms.  Rev.  Celt.^ 
i.  261. 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE   SACRIFICE   OF  A  CHILD 

On  the  principle  of  giving  their  best,  men  have  often 
sacrificed  their  own  children  to  the  gods — -to  us  the 
most  cruel  aspect  of  human  sacrifice.  It  would  be 
surprising  if  the  memory  of  such  rites  had  not  sur- 
vived in  folk-tales,  and  in  those  stories  where  a  child 
is  promised  to  a  certain  being,  usually  malicious,  but 
occasionally  kindly,  we  may  see  some  dim  and  dis- 
torted memory  of  the  sacrifice  surviving. 

I.  One  aspect  of  this  custom  is  seen  in  that  group 
of  tales  in  which  childless  parents  agree  to  give  up 
their  first-born  to  someone  who  offers  to  remove  the 
wife's  barrenness.  A  Greek  story  relates  that  a 
woman  prayed  to  the  sun  for  a  daughter.  The 
prayer  was  granted  on  condition  that  she  would  give 
the  child  in  her  twelfth  year  to  the  sun.  To  evade 
this,  the  girl  was  shut  up  in  a  house,  every  window 
and  cranny  of  which  was  closed.  But  the  keyhole 
was  forgotten,  and  through  that  a  ray  of  light  came 
and  seized  upon  the  girl.^     In  an  Albanian  variant  the 

1  This  story  may  be  a  memory  of  human  sacrifice  to  the  sun-god 
in  ancient  Greece.  On  the  other  hand,  it  appears  to  be  a  distorted 
version  of  the  cycle  in  which  a  girl  is  impregnated  by  the  sun,  or 
some  other  being,  no  matter  how  carefully  she  is  concealed.  Even 
here  the  common  idea  of  sacrifice  of  virginity  to  a  god  or  his  priest 
may  have  moulded  the  tale.  Cf.  Hahn,  i.  245.  In  many  stories  the 
girl  is  hidden  because  it  has  been  prophesied  that  her  child  will  kill 

410 


MAGIC  BIRTH  411 

sun,  after  capturing-  the  girl,  lets  her  return  home 
because  she  cries !  The  true  type  of  this  story  cycle 
makes  some  being  promise  the  father  several  children 
if  he  will  give  up  the  first-born  ;  this  being  is  a  demon 
in  Venetian  and  Greek  tales,  and,  in  Hungarian  and 
Gipsy  stories,  a  witch  who  gives  a  childless  queen  a 
camomile  flower  to  carry  in  her  bosom.  A  fairy  does 
this  in  a  Tuscan  story,  but  here  the  mother  is  only  to 
give  her  a  gift,  not  the  child ;  she  omits  to  do  this, 
and,  in  consequence,  her  son  is  born  small  and  never 
grows.  Have  we  here  a  reminiscence  of  some  custom 
of  buying  off  the  child  by  means  of  a  present  or 
fine?^ 

The  story  is  common  enough  in  the  East,  for  a 
reason  which  will  appear  hereafter.  A  Bengali  king 
receives  a  drug  from  a  mendicant  which  will  cause  his 
wife  to  bear  twins,  one  of  whom  he  will  claim.  In  the 
boy's  sixteenth  year  the  mendicant  arrived  and  took 
him  away.     His  brother,  in  the  sequel,  rescued  him 


the  king  and  inherit  his  throne.  This  is,  of  course,  the  old  myth  of 
Danae,  shut  up  in  the  brazen  tower,  but  visited  there  by  Zeus  as  a 
shower  of  gold.  She  and  her  son  Perseus  were  committed  to  the 
waves  in  a  chest,  but  rescued.  In  the  sequel  Danae's  father,  Acrisius, 
was  killed  by  Perseus.  Such  a  myth  or  folk-tale,  as  well  as  another  in 
which  danger  is  prophesied  regarding  a  newly-born  child,  must  have 
had  a  great  vogue  in  ancient  times,  and  attached  itself  to  many  mythic 
or  actual  personages — Paris,  CEdipus,  Cyrus,  whose  parents  tried  to 
get  rid  of  them  on  account  of  such  a  dream  or  prophecy.  It  also 
occurs  in  several  modern  folk-tales,  as  well  as  in  the  fragment  of  an 
ancient  Egyptian  tale.  It  has  even  penetrated,  perhaps  via  Egypt 
long  ago,  to  Uganda,  where  it  is  told  of  a  member  of  the  Unyoro 
dynasty.  Bukuku  had  a  daughter  called  Nyinamiru,  of  whom  a 
sorcerer  prophesied  that  if  she  ever  had  a  son  he  would  kill  Bukuku. 
She  was  accordingly  isolated  in  the  forest,  where  a  stranger  seduced 
her.  The  mother  herself  threw  the  child  into  the  water,  but  it  was 
rescued  by  her  servant  and  brought  back.  In  the  sequel,  the  child 
killed  his  grandfather  and  obtained  the  throne.     Johnston,  ii.  596. 

^  Dozon,  No.  7,  p.  49  ;  Widter  and  Wolf,  No.  13  ;  Hahn,  No.  68  ; 
Gubernatis,  Trad.  Pop.^  p.  187.  In  a  Czech  story  twins  are  promised 
to  a  father  by  a  black  horseman,  provided  he  gives  him  up  one  of 
them. 


412  THE  SACRIFICE  OF  A  CHILD 

from  a  cannibal  rakshasi,  who  now  kindly  advised 
them  how  to  escape  from  the  mendicant,  who  meant 
to  offer  the  first  brother  as  a  sacrifice  to  Kali.  In 
Kumaun  the  bargain  is  made  by  a  yog^i  with  a  king 
who  has  seven  childless  wives.  Six  of  them  eat  the 
fruit  which  he  obtains ;  the  seventh  eats  the  rind. 
Each  has  a  son,  but  none  will  give  up  hers  save  the 
seventh,  and  her  son  is  accordingly  carried  off.  A 
demon  is  the  deus  ex  machina  of  a  Syriac  story,  and 
carries  off  the  merchant's  first-born  son  to  the  under- 
world, from  which  he  escapes,  as  in  many  stories  in 
other  cycles,  by  the  aid  of  a  horse  whose  proper  food 
he  has  set  before  it.  The  Swahilis  tell  how  a  child- 
less sultan  met  a  demon,  who  said,  *'  If  I  give  you  a 
medicine  and  you  get  a  son,  what  will  you  give  me  ?  " 
Nothing  would  suffice  him.  Then,  being  a  crafty 
demon,  he  said,  ''Well,  your  wife  will  have  two 
children.  Keep  one,  and  give  me  the  other."  After 
carrying  off  the  boy,  the  demon  gave  him  the  keys  of 
his  house  and  said,  "  Open  what  you  like."  Curiously, 
the  usual  restriction  is  not  made,  and  the  boy  sees 
many  strange  things  without  fault  being  found.  In 
the  seventh  room  a  horse  informs  him  that  the  demon 
is  a  cannibal,  and  means  to  make  a  feast  of  him. 
The  horse  then  instructs  him  what  to  do,  with  the 
result  that  the  demon  is  boiled  in  his  own  cauldron 
and  eaten  by  his  friends,  while  the  boy  gets  all  his 
treasure  and  marries  a  sultan's  daughter.  In  an  Arab 
story  it  is  a  magician  who  gives  a  childless  king 
bonbons  for  himself  and  his  wife.  The  first-born  son, 
whom  he  takes,  finds  a  girl  in  a  garden  which  he  was 
apparently  forbidden  to  enter.  They  flee  together, 
but  the  magician  rushes  after  them.  He  is  finally 
disposed  of  by  the  youth,  after  a  long  transformation 
conflict.^ 

Though  witches,  magicians,  demons,  and   fairies 

^  Day,  p.  196.     Minaef,  No.  46,  cf.  chap.  xi.  p.  311  ;  Prym  and 
Socin,  No.  58  ;  Steere,  p.  381  ;  Spitta  Bey,  p.  i. 


BARRENNESS  REMOVED  413 

figure  in  most  of  these  stories,  the  bargain  must  have 
been  originally  made  with  a  divinity.  Trace  of  this 
is  found  in  the  Greek  story  ;  in  that  from  Bengal,  the 
boy  is  to  be  offered  to  Kali ;  while  in  another  tale 
from  the  Kathakoga,  Queen  Rati  promises  that  she 
will  sacrifice  the  child  of  the  co-queen  to  the  family 
goddess  if  she  herself  is  blessed  with  a  son.^  Again, 
in  the  Aitareya  Brahmana  Harischandra  prays  to 
Varuna  for  a  son,  promising  to  offer  the  child  as  a 
sacrifice  to  the  god.  After  the  child's  birth  he  seeks 
to  evade  the  promise,  and  is  about  to  offer  a  substitute 
when  the  latter  is  miraculouly  set  free.  On  the 
other  hand,  as  the  magical  remedy  is  often,  in  folk- 
tales, obtained  from  a  magician,  so  it  is  in  actual 
practice.  Thus,  in  Kashmir,  at  the  present  day, 
folk-tale  and  custom  coincide,  and  fakirs  have  the 
power  to  grant  children  through  some  special  fruit- 
eating.^  Indeed,  medicines  and  charms  for  causing 
fruitfulness  form  a  regular  trade  in  the  East,  and 
support  a  whole  army  of  charlatans.^  But  it  is  the  most 
natural  thing  in  the  world  that  a  divinity  should  be 
prayed  to,  and  among  all  people  some  of  the  earliest 
and  most  important  deities  are  those  who  grant 
fertility  to  women  as  well  as  to  field  and  fold.  And, 
in  truth,  the  custom  of  barren  women  praying  to  a 
divinity,  at  the  graves  of  ancestors,  or  at  any  sacred 
place,  and  accompanying  the  prayer  with  sacrifice  or 
with  the  promise  of  one,  is  universal.  The  Dyaks 
offer  fowls  to  the  water-goddess ;  the  people  of  the 
Sulu  Archipelago  place  the  sacrifice  on  the  ancestral 
graves,  the  husband  meanwhile  reserving  a  goat  till 
his  wife  proves  to  be  pregnant.  On  the  Gold  Coast 
women    make    sacrifice    to    the    fetich-god,     while 

^  Tawney,  p.  48.  -  Knowles,  p.  416,  note. 

"^  Ananga  Ranga^  p.  53.  Cf.  p.  54,  where  prescriptions  for 
fertility  are  given.  Such  "  medicines  "  are  also  supplied  by  the  West 
African  fetich-doctor.  Cf.  Nassau,  p.  332,  for  a  folk-tale  based  on 
this  practice. 


414  THE  SACRIFICE  OF  A  CHILD 

Malagasy  women  present  small  offering's  at  the  sacred 
stones,  and  a  folk-tale  current  there  tells  of  a  woman 
who  obtained  from  a  water-spirit  in  exchange  for  a 
sacrifice,  pebbles  which  became  male  children.^ 
Offering's  of  a  sheep  are  promised  by  barren  Syrian 
women  at  the  shrine  of  saints,  if  the -saint  will  g-rant 
them  a  child  ;  the  practice  is  certainly  pre- Islamic.  It 
is  not  improbable  that  all  such  sacrifices  have  taken 
the  place  of  an  earlier  offering-  of  the  first-born,  who 
removed  the  curse  of  barrenness,  or  of  a  dedication  of 
the  child  to  the  divinity.  When  an  Otchi  neg"ress 
has  prayed  to  a  fetich  for  a  child,  the  child  is 
considered  the  property  of  the  fetich,  and  is  called  a 
''fetich-child."  While,  among-  the  Syrians,  a  child 
may  be  vowed  to  a  saint,  yet  ''in  that  case  the  child 
is  not  slain,  as  may  once  have  been  the  case,  but  is 
redeemed."^ 

In  the  Czech,  Bengali,  and  Swahili  variants  a 
twin  child  has  to  be  given  up.  Now,  among-  many 
peoples,  when  twins  are  born,  it  is  thought  that  one 
of  them  must  be  the  offspring  of  a  god  who  has  united 
himself  to  the  mother.  So,  of  the  twins  which 
Alcmene  bore,  Heracles  was  son  of  Zeus,  Iphicles  of 
her  husband ;  among  the  Yorubas  and  Damaras  one 
of  the  twins  is  always  called  after  a  certain  god  ;  and 
the  Melanesians  think  that  one  or  both  of  the  children 
is  the  offspring  of  a  spirit.^  Perhaps  in  earlier  times 
such  a  twin  would  be  sacrificed  ;  at  all  events  among 
other  peoples,  twins  being  thought  abnormal,  one  or 
both  of  them,  and  sometimes  also  the  mother,  is 
killed  or  sacrificed.     Thus,  though  the  evidence  is 


^  Hartland,  Perseus^  i.  i68  ;  Featherman,  ist  div.,  p.  139  ;  F.L.J., 
i.  341. 

^  Curtiss,  Primitive  Semitic  Religion^  pp.  157,  167.  Otchi^  Ploss, 
i.  437.  Dedication  of  a  first-born  child  to  Jehovah  was  the  rule  in  the 
Old  Testament.  We  may  also  note  Jephthah's  vow  :  he  may  have 
actually  offered  up  his  daughter  as  a  burnt-offering. 

^  Ellis,  Yoruba^  p.  67.     Codrington,  p.  235. 


MALBROUK  415 

incomplete,  it  points  to  a  primitive  custom  of  sacri- 
ficing- a  first-born  child  in  cases  where  barrenness  had 
been  removed.^ 

2.  We  now  come  to  several  cycles  of  stories  intro- 
duced by  the  formula  of  a  child's  being  promised  to 
some  being  for  services  rendered  to  the  father.  The 
promise  is  made  {a)  consciously,  in  which  case  there 
are  several  varieties  of  it,  or  (d)  it  is  made  without 
any  suspicion  of  its  real  import. 

{a)  Malbrouk,  say  the  Basques,  was  the  son  of 
poor  parents,  and  just  before  his  birth  his  father  met 
a  gentleman  who  offered  him  much  wealth  if  he  would 
make  him  godfather  to  the  child.  At  the  baptism 
the  stranger  disappears  with  baby,  and  carries  him 
off  to  his  wife,  who  is  a  witch.  In  seven  years  the 
boy  is  allowed  to  return  home  for  three  days,  and 
brings  back  his  two  brothers  with  him.  The  witch 
now  urges  her  husband  to  put  them  all  to  death,  but 
through  Malbrouk's  stratagem  (as  in  many  Youngest 
Son  tales)  he  kills  his  own  daughters  by  mistake,  and 
the  brothers  escape  with  his  seven-league  boots.  In 
a  Lorraine  variant,  ''le  bon  Dieu"  is  the  godfather, 
coming  for  the  boy  in  his  seventh  year  and  always 
helping  him,  while  Christ  and  the  Virgin  are  the  god- 
parents in  a  Breton  story  of  this  type.^ 

In  another  series,  of  which  there  are  Italian, 
Spanish,  and  Basque  variants,  things  turn  out 
happily  for  the  father.  The  story  is  one  in  which  the 
Promised  Child  incident  is  worked  up  with  that  of 

1  Miss  Kingsley,  pp.  455,  460  (Benin,  Jakir  tribe,  Bonny).  Children 
born  with  teeth  are  also  destroyed,  and,  with  several  African  tribes, 
those  who  cut  their  upper  teeth  first.  In  England  cutting  the  upper 
teeth  first  is  regarded  as  ominous  of  death  in  infancy — relic  of  a  time 
^hen  the  infant  was  killed. — Gomme,  Folk-Lore  Relics^  p.  180.  Cf. 
p.  397  supra.  Both  twins  are  destroyed  among  the  natives  of  North 
Central  Australia  as  uncanny. — Spencer  and  Gillen,  p.  609. 

"-  Webster,  p.  TJ.  Cf.  p.  133;  Cosquin,  ii.  260;  Sebillot,  iii., 
No.  13. 


416  THE  SACRIFICE  OF  A  CHILD 

the  Grateful  Debtor,  and  in  the  Basque  version  it 
runs  thus.  A  man  paid  the  debts  of  a  dead  debtor, 
whose  soul,  in  the  shape  of  a  fox,  rescued  the  man 
from  death  later  on  on  condition  that  he  would  give 
him  half  of  the  child  soon  to  be  born  him,  or  (in  a 
second  version)  ''half  of  what  he  has  at  present,  and 
half  of  what  he  will  have."  When  the  promise  is  to 
be  redeemed  the  man  is  about  to  cut  his  child  in 
two,  when,  as  in  the  case  of  Abraham  and  Isaac, 
his  hand  is  stayed,  and  the  fox  reveals  himself^ 

From  the  Pentamerone  we  may  cite  an  example  of 
a  third  type.  A  peasant  is  commanded  by  a  huge 
lizard  to  bring  his  youngest  daughter.  The  lizard  is 
a  fairy,  who  gives  the  girl  everything.  Presently  a 
prince  comes  by  and  asks  her  to  marry  him.  Off  she 
goes  without  looking  once  at  the  good  fairy,  who 
thereupon  gives  her  a  goat's  face.  Her  own  face  is 
only  restored  to  her  when  she  has  learned  humility 
and  gone  on  her  knees  to  the  fairy. ^ 

The  next  series  may  be  called  that  of  *'  The  Devil 
Outwitted "  ;  it  begins  with  the  incident  of  a  child, 
already  born,  sold  to  the  devil  by  his  poor  parents. 
The  Breton  version  describes  how  the  devil  is  to 
come  for  the  boy  in  seven  years.  Meanwhile  he 
receives  a  magic  rod  from  the  Virgin,  by  means  of 
which  he  overcomes  the  devil  and  forces  him  to  give 
up  the  bond.  In  the  sequel  he  takes  up  his  residence 
in  a  haunted  tower,  where  the  devil,  recognising  him, 
is  glad  to  show  him  where  vast  treasures  are  con- 
cealed. A  Tuscan  version  replaces  the  Virgin  with 
the  boy's  godmother,  while,  in  Lorraine,  the  boy  is 
no  less  a  person  than  St   Etienne  who  carries  holy 

1  Webster,  pp.  149,  153.  Italian^  Crane,  p.  131 ;  Spanish^ 
Caballero,  p.  23. 

'•^  Burton,  i.  78.  In  a  Basque  version  the  girl  is  throughout 
grateful  to  the  queen  of  the  fairies,  to  whom  her  poor  mother  has 
sold  her  before  birth.  Grimm's  story  of  "  The  Woodcutter's  Child " 
has  many  points  of  similarity,  so  has  the  Scots  version. — Chambers, 
p.  64. 


THE  SEA  MAIDEN  417 

water  to  hell,  and  escapes  after  asperging-  the  devils 
to  their  intense  agfony.  Some  versions  of  this  story- 
are,  however,  introduced  by  a  formula  common  to  the 
second  type,  in  which  the  father  promises  without 
realising-  what  he  has  promised.  Thus  the  father 
promises  the  devil  "what  his  wife  carries,"  not  know- 
ing she  is  with  child,  in  Lorraine  and  Italian  versions, 
or  ''what  he  loves  better  than  himself,"  according-  to 
a  Wallachian  story.  ^ 

Still  another  idea  appears  in  the  next  series,  where 
children  are  promised  on  condition  that  one  of  them 
is  given  up  in  order  to  marry  the  daughter  of  the 
being  who  makes  the  promise.  The  marriage  is  not 
expressly  mentioned  in  the  fine  Celtic  version  of  this 
story,  but  it  is  hinted  at.  A  sea-maiden  asks  a  poor 
fisherman  what  he  would  give  her  if  she  sent  him 
plenty  offish  :  "  Wilt  thou  give  me  the  first  son  thou 
hast  ?  "  He  and  his  wife  are  too  old  to  have  children, 
but  the  sea-maiden  gives  him  certain  grains  which  he 
is  to  give  to  his  wife,  his  mare,  and  his  dog,  each  of 
whom  will  have  three  offspring,  but  one  of  the  sons 
must  be  hers.  Three  years  came  to  an  end,  at  which 
time  the  sea-maiden  appeared  with  a  child  of  her  own 
■ — presumably  the  destined  bride  of  the  fisherman's 
son,  to  whom  she  granted  other  four  years'  stay  with 
his  father,  and  at  the  end  of  that  time,  seven  years 
more.  As  the  term  approached,  the  fisherman  was 
full  of  sorrow,  and  his  son  must  know  what  it  was. 
The  youth  was  willing  to  go  to  the  sea-maiden,  but 
his  father  would  not  allow  him.  Off  he  sets  to  seek 
his  fortune  elsewhere.  The  story  now  merges  into 
the  Perseus  and  Andromeda  cycle  ;  we  resume  it  after 
the  hero  has  married  the  rescued  girl.  One  day  the 
pair  were  walking  by  the  loch  when  a  terrible  sea- 
beast  (i.e.,  the  sea-maiden)  "carried  him  away  to  the 
loch  without  fear  or  asking."     Advised  by  a  smith, 

1  Sebillot,  i.  29.  Tuscan  F.T.,  No.  10,  p.  102  ;  Cosquin,  ii.  231  ; 
Ibid.y  ii.  307  ;  Comparetti,  No.  41  ;  Schott,  No.  15. 

2  D 


41S  THE  SACRIFICE  OF  A  CHILD 

the  bride  carried  the  finest  of  her  possessions  to  the 
shore  and  offered  them  all  to  the  beast  in  exchange 
for  her  husband.  The  exchange  was  made,  but  soon 
after  the  wife  herself  was  carried  off.  Finally  her 
rescue  was  effected  by  the  soul  of  the  sea-beast  being 
destroyed.^  In  Naxos  the  son  is  promised  to  the 
Mother  of  the  Sea,  in  order  to  marry  her  daughter. 
When  he  is  taken  down  to  the  shore,  the  sea  throws 
herself  on  the  beach  and  the  youth  runs  off.  Long 
after,  he  bathes  in  the  sea  and  is  carried  off,  and 
forced  to  marry  the  Mother  of  the  Sea's  daughter. 
His  first  wife  bargained  for  a  sight  of  him,  and  as 
soon  as  he  appeared  out  of  the  water  he  transformed 
himself  into  an  eagle  and  flew  off,  never  going  near 
the  sea  again. ^  The  confusion  here  between  the 
Mother  of  the  Sea  and  the  sea  itself,  is  naive  and 
primitive,  and  suggests  a  point  in  the  argument 
which  will  presently  be  referred  to. 

{b)  Of  stories  where  the  promise  is  made  without 
suspicion  of  its  real  nature,  there  is  an  immense 
variety,  and  only  a  few  can  be  indicated  here.  It 
will  be  convenient  to  divide  them  according  to  the 
formula  used.  The  simplest  is  that  made  use  of  by  a 
"  stranger '' in  a  Finn  story.  He  appears  to  a  man 
who  has  lost  his  way  in  the  forest  and  offers  to  set 
him  right  if  he  will  give  him  '*  what  he  has  at  home." 
This  turns  out  to  be  a  beautiful  child.^  Usually  this 
formula  is  extended  into  giving  ''what  he  has  at 
home  and  yet  has  not  seen."  A  Polish  merchant 
travelling  through  a  forest,  fell  into  a  bog,  from 
which  he  was  rescued  by  a  spirit  on  the  same 
condition.      On   returning    home,    the    merchant    is 

1  Campbell,  i.  72.  Several  variants  are  given  ;  in  one,  the  sea- 
maiden swallows  the  hero,  and  the  wife  recovers  him  by  playing  to  the 
maiden,  who  shows  her  first  his  head,  then  his  body  to  the  waist,  then 
places  him  on  her  palm,  when  he  changes  into  a  falcon  and 
flies  ofif. 

^  Garnett,  ii.  208.  ^  Suomen  Kansan^  i.  151. 


PRINCE  VILDERING  419 

grieved  to  find  that  there  is  a  boy  just  born.  Years 
pass  ;  the  boy  sees  his  father's  grief,  inquires  the  cause, 
and  sets  out  to  recover  the  bond.  By  means  of  holy 
water,  which  he  carries  with  him  to  hell,  he  recovers 
it  and  terrifies  the  spirits.^  Another  formula  occurs 
in  a  spirited  Magyar  tale.  A  king  loses  his  way,  and 
calls  on  God,  who  will  not  help  him  because  he  never 
goes  to  church.  He  called  on  the  devil,  who  assisted 
him  at  once  in  exchange  for  the  gift  of  what  he  has 
not  got  in  his  house,  viz.,  the  daughter  who  is  not  yet 
born.  In  ten  years  the  devil  arrives,  and  is  given  (i) 
the  swineherd's  daughter,  (2)  the  shepherd's,  but 
kills  them  both  and  demands  the  real  girl.  He  takes 
her  to  hell,  where  his  son  Johnnie  helps  her  in  the 
tasks  set  her,  and  finally  flees  with  her.  In  the 
course  of  their  flight  the  usual  transformation 
incidents  occur,  but  the  pair  escape  and  are  happily 
married." 

This  story  has  several  points  in  common  with  a 
large  group  introducing  another  formula.  A  Danish 
king  was  in  danger  of  losing  his  life  in  a  swamp  when 
a  dwarf  met  him,  and  saved  his  life  on  condition 
"that  the  first  young  thing  you  see  on  your  return 
home,  shall  belong  to  me."  Alas,  this  was  the  newly- 
born  prince.  After  several  periods  of  delay,  gained 
by  several  large  gifts  to  the  dwarf.  Prince  Vildering 
has  to  go.  In  the  dwarfs  castle  he  meets  Maid 
Miseri,  the  stolen  daughter  of  a  king,  who  has 
acquired  magic  arts,  and  helps  the  hero  in  the  tasks  he 
must  perform.  At  last  the  dwarf  finds  them  out,  and 
resolves  to  cook  and  eat  them.  Flight  is  resolved  on, 
but  not  before  the  oven  is  taught  to  speak  in 
Vildering's  voice.     Then  the  dwarf  sends  his  men 

^  Naake,  p.  226.  The  tale  embodies  the  common  incident  of  the 
hero  being  told  by  a  robber  to  see  what  fate  will  be  his  in  hell,  and 
his  repentance  on  discovering  it,  and  his  subsequent  meeting  with 
the  hero,  now  become  a  bishop. 

-  Jones,  p.  188. 


420  THE  SACRIFICE  OF  A  CHILD 

after  the  pair,  who  change  themselves  into  a  briar  and 
a  rosebud.  The  dwarf  next  pursues  them,  but  sees 
only  a  church  and  a  priest  saying-  mass.  Then  his 
mother  sets  off,  to  meet  her  fate  at  the  lake  on  which 
Vildering  and  Miseri  swim  as  a  duck  and  drake. 
The  North  German  variant  introduces  a  witch  in  the 
form  of  a  black  poodle,  who  obtains  Gold  Maria,  the 
child  of  a  nobleman  and  his  wife,  under  similar 
circumstances.  Her  subsequent  adventures  with 
Gold  Feather,  a  prince  in  the  witch's  power,  are 
similar  to  Vildering  s.  In  a  Swedish  version,  a  king's 
ship  is  held  fast  by  a  mermaid,  and  only  released  on 
his  promising  to  give  her  whatever  he  meets  first  on 
the  shore.  This  is  his  son.  The  king  casts  his  eyes 
instantly  on  a  hog  and  a  goose,  which  are  thrown  into 
the  sea,  but  at  once  cast  back  on  the  shore,  and  the 
boy  has  to  be  given  up  to  the  mermaid.  A  stratagem 
is  employed  by  the  Esthonian  king  of  the  Golden 
Land  when  he  is  thus  victimised  by  the  devil.  He 
takes  a  peasant's  daughter  into  his  palace,  and  sends 
his  son  to  be  brought  up  in  the  cottage.  The  devil  is 
cheated,  but  when  the  boy  hears  of  this,  he  takes 
service  with  the  devil  to  rescue  the  girl.  The  story 
then  proceeds  with  the  tasks  accomplished  by  her  aid 
and  the  transformation  flight.  A  Russian  version 
uses  another  formula :  the  Water  King  helping  a 
monarch  on  condition  that  he  gives  up  whatever  at 
home  he  doesn't  know  of  As  usual,  this  is  his  son, 
who,  on  his  way  to  the  Water  King  s  abode,  obtains 
power  over  his  daughter,  a  swan-maiden,  who  assists 
him  in  the  usual  way.  There  are  several  Russian 
versions  of  this  story,  where  a  King  Bear,  the  Water 
Chudo,  the  Devil,  and  in  one  case  an  idol,  take  the 
place  of  the  Water  King.  In  a  Celtic  version,  a 
king  promises  his  first-born  child  to  a  giant  in  return 
for  his  help,  and  tries  to  palm  off  the  cook  s  son  and 
the  butler's  son.  ''  Out  here  thy  son  "  cries  the  giant, 
''or  else ."      Here,  as  in  the   Russian  tale,   the 


THE  PARENT  RANSOMED  421 

youth  is  assisted  by  the  giant's  daugrhter.^  There  are 
also  German,  Norse,  Wallachian,  and  Lithuanian 
versions,  where,  usually,  the  devil  figures  promi- 
nently.^ 

Sometimes  it  is  a  woman  who  is  released  from 
some  difficulty,  and  in  this  case  the  formula  is  *'to 
give  up  what  she  carries  under  her  heart,  or  under  her 
girdle,"  viz.  the  child  whose  presence  is  as  yet  un- 
suspected, to  the  devil  (Lapp,  Esthonian)  or  to  a 
mermaid  (Swedish).  The  Esthonian  woman  cheats 
the  devil  by  throwing  him  her  apron  as  the  thing 
"she  carried  night  and  day  under  her  heart." ^ 

3.  The  stories  already  cited  speak  of  the  child  as 
being  given  up  for  service  done,  but  in  many  others 
he  or  she  is  an  actual  ransom  to  preserve  the  parent 
from  death.  Thus  the  following  may  be  taken  as  an 
example  of  several  Italian  stories.  A  woman  is 
caught  by  a  witch  while  stealing  from  her  garden. 
The  witch  threatens  to  eat  her,  but  sets  her  free  if 
she  will  give  up  her  child  as  soon  as  born.  The  girl 
is  kept  a  prisoner,  but  kindly  treated,  ultimately 
escaping  with  a  prince  who  sees  her  by  accident.* 
Of  another  type  is  a  Finnish  story,  where  a  man 
drinking  from  a  lake  is  caught  by  a  sea-troll,  and 
only  released  by  promising  to  bring  the  troll  his 
daughter.  This  is  the  usual  introductory  formula 
to  many  stories  of  the  Forbidden  Chamber  cycle, 
where  the  being  who  holds  the  father  to  ransom  turns 
out  to  be  a  blessing  in  disguise.  Thus  a  Swedish 
king,  having  promised  to  bring  his  daughters  a  present, 
is   asked  by   the  youngest  for   ''the  three    singing 

»  Mulley,  p.    166;  Thorpe,    Y.T.S.,  p.  441  ;  th'd.,  p.  205;  Kirby, 
i.  152  ;  Ralston,  p.  120  seg.  ;  Campbell,  i.  27. 

2  Grimm,  "  The  Handless  Maiden "  ;  Dasent,   ii.   26 ;  Schleicher, 
No.  26  ;  Schott,  p.  2,  15. 

3  F.L.R.,  1884,  p.  10;  Kirby,  i.  186  ;  Thorpe,  V.T.S.,  p.  192. 

'*  Crane,  pp.  25,  26;  c/,  Basile,  i.  141.     Grimm's  "Rapunzel"  is  a 
variant  of  this. 


422  THE  SACRIFICE  OF  A  CHILD 

leaves."  As  he  is  about  to  take  these,  Prince  Hatt 
under  the  Earth  forbids  him,  unless  he  brings  him  the 
first  living-  thing  he  meets  on  his  way  home.  This  is, 
of  course,  his  youngest  daughter,  who  is  married  to 
Prince  Hatt,  but  breaks  the  tabu  with  startling 
results.  Here  the  ransom  is  obscured,  but  it  is  clear 
enough  in  similar  tales  from  Lorraine,  Hesse,  Ice- 
land, Hanover,  and  Lithuania,  where  a  wolf,  a  lion, 
a  dog,  a  spaniel,  and  a  wolf  respectively  appear 
at  the  critical  moment  and  threaten  instant  death 
to  the  father  if  he  will  not  bring  whatever  he  meets 
first.  ^ 

The  same  idea  of  a  ransom  appears  in  many 
stories  of  the  Rumpelstiltskin  cycle,  which  has  already 
been  separately  treated.  We  pass  on,  therefore,  to  a 
third  form  of  the  ransom  type,  where,  as  in  a  Sicilian 
story,  the  friend  of  a  prince  takes  leprosy,  and  can 
only  be  cured  by  being  bathed  with  the  blood  of  the 
prince's  child.  The  cure  is  revealed  by  St  James  of 
Gonzenbach.  Sorrowfully  the  prince  makes  the 
sacrifice,  but  next  morning  the  child  is  found  whole 
and  living.  This  is  the  beautiful  mediaeval  story  of 
Amis  and  Amile,  and  is  found  everywhere.  One 
Eastern  version  from  the  Vetala-pantchavingati  may 
be  cited.  Viravara  is  sent  by  the  king  to  discover 
why  a  woman  is  crying.  She  cries  because  danger 
menaces  the  king,  and  it  can  only  be  warded  off  by 
Viravara  sacrificing  his  son  to  Devi.  He  does  so,  and 
then  kills  himself.  In  his  distress  the  king  is  about  to 
commit  suicide,  when  Devi  relents  and  restores  both 
child  and  father.^  There  is,  however,  another  version 
of  the  story  which  is  equally  widespread,  and  is  intro- 

^  Suomen  Kansan,  ii.  146;  Thorpe,  Y.T.S.,  p.  15  ;  Cosquin,  ii. 
216;  Grimm,  No.  88  ;  Arnason,  p.  278  ;  Colshorn,  No.  20;  Leskien, 
No.  23.  Many  others  might  be  cited,  but  in  all  the  animal,  etc.,  turns 
to  an  enchanted  prince. 

2  Crane,  p.  202  ;  Pater,  The  Renaissance,  p.  1 1  ;  Benfey,  p. 
146. 


PROPITIATION  423 

duced  into  every  collection  of  Eastern  tales.  The 
friend  of  a  king-  learns  that  he  is  in  danger,  but  at  the 
same  time  discovers  the  way  to  save  him,  though  if 
ever  he  reveals  the  secret  he  will  be  turned  to  stone. 
Faithful  to  the  end,  he  is  found  in  questionable  situa- 
tions, and  the  king  demands  an  explanation.  The 
friend  is  turned  to  stone.  But  it  is  also  revealed  that 
he  will  recover  life  if  the  king's  son  is  slain,  and  his 
blood  rubbed  on  the  statue.  When  this  sacrifice  is 
made,  the  friend  comes  to  life  and  goes  off  to  seek  the 
Water  of  Life,  with  which  he  restores  the  little  child. 
Modified  by  Christianity,  the  incident  of  the  child's 
death  and  restoration  are  utilised  to  confirm  belief  in 
the  miraculous  power  of  the  saints.  But  in  the  more 
primitive  and  pagan  versions  of  the  story  the  child 
has  clearly  been  offered  as  a  sacrifice  to  the  gods,  who, 
in  turn,  restore  the  petrified  man.^ 

What  is  true  of  this  small  group  of  stories  is  true 
of  all  those  we  have  discussed,  but  especially  of  all  in 
which  the  devil  is  the  being  to  whom  the  child  is 
promised.  The  devil  has  replaced  some  early  divinity 
whom  Christianity  invested  with  diabolic  form.  At 
other  times  the  earlier  pagan  god  is  less  disguised. 
Thus,  we  have  the  Sun,  the  Water  King,  or  the 
Mother  of  the  Sea  (evidently  water-divinities),  or  a 
sea-maiden,  or  a  giant  or  dwarf,  or  as  in  the  Russian 
story,  an  idol.  In  others,  again,  the  minister  of  the 
divinity  is  suggested  by  the  witch  or  wizard,  both 
sheer  pagans.  Where  the  child,  born  or  unborn,  is 
made  over  on  account  of  service  done,  the  idea  of  a 
sacrificial  propitiation,  of  a  quid  pro  quo,  is  quite 
apparent.  It  was  firmly  rooted  in  the  pagan  mind 
that  man  could  get  nothing  from  the  gods  except  by 
offering  some  equivalent.  We  have  already  seen  in 
the  previous  chapter  how  water-spirits  or  monsters  lay 
a  toll  on  human  life,  sometimes  by  way  of  giving 

1  Grimm's  story  of  Faithful  John  may  serve  as  a  type  ;  cf.  Cosquin, 
L  38  ;  Day,  p.  42  ;  Hahn,  No.  29  ;  Crane,  p.  85. 


424  THE  SACRIFICE  OF  A  CHILD 

permission  to  men  to  take  the  waters  which  they 
gnjard.  Stories  where  someone  is  seized  while  drink- 
ing, and  made  to  give  up  his  child,  are  a  reminiscence 
of  such  beliefs  and  actual  sacrifices.  In  those  stories 
where  the  promise  is  made  without  suspicion  of  its 
real  nature  we  may  see  only  the  dramatic  art  of  the 
primitive  novelist  inventing  a  strong  situation.  But 
just  as  likely  we  are  face  to  face  with  the  survival  of 
an  early  custom- — the  vow  made  to  a  god  by  some 
grateful  worshipper  to  give  him  the  first  living  thing 
that  met  him  on  his  return  home.  Gratitude  often 
overpowers  reason,  and  the  possibilities  involved  in 
such  a  vow  would  not  be  realised  in  a  moment  of 
emotion.^  In  the  last  group  of  stories,  where  the 
father  escapes  certain  death  by  giving  up  his  child, 
there  is  evident  reference  to  some  custom  of  buying 
oneself  off  from  a  superior  power,  and  therefore  to 
sacrifices  of  expiation.^ 

If  this  explanation  be  correct,  such  stories  of  a 
promise  made  must  have  arisen  at  a  time  when 
human  sacrifices  (especially  of  children)  were  passing 
away,  and  only  a  memory  of  them  remained.- 
Perhaps  in  the  earliest  forms  of  the  story  the  child 
was  actually  killed,  as  in  the  Amis  and  Amile  group, 
and  some  tales  may  then  have  described  how  he 
escaped  the  sacrificial  knife.  But  the  final  form  of  the 
story  was  different.  The  child  only  fell  into  the 
power  of  a  superior  being,  and  this  offered  ample 
scope  for  invention  and  imagination  to  suggest  a 
sequel.  Christianity  further  modified  the  tale  by 
bringing  in  the  devil  and  the  power  of  holy  water ; 

1  If  the  story  of  Jephthah  is  not  a  Hebrew  folk-tale,  it  affords  an 
actual  instance  of  such  a  sacrificial  vow,  common,  no  doubt,  in 
Canaanite  paganism. 

2  In  the  Swedish  story  cited  above,  though  the  promise  made 
serves  as  a  mere  introduction  to  a  story  of  another  type.  Prince  Hatt 
under  the  Earth  may  be  the  dim  memory  of  a  chthonian  deity  to  whom 
human  victims  were  offered. 


SEMITIC  AND  CELTIC  CHILD  OFFERINGS     425 

while  the  story  itself  served  often  as  a  fitting-  intro- 
duction to  others  of  a  different  type,  as  in  the  Cupid 
and  Psyche  series. 

There  is  sufficient  evidence  that  children  were 
actually  sacrificed  to  divinities  among-  many  races. 
The  case  of  two  widely  separated  races,  the  Semites 
and  the  Celts,  may  be  cited.  Of  the  practice  among 
the  former  the  Old  Testament  makes  us  aware.  The 
King  of  Moab  sacrificed  his  eldest  son  and  heir- 
apparent  when  ''the  battle  was  too  sore  for  him." 
Such  sacrifices  were  made  to  the  sun-god,  called 
Chemosh  in  Moab,  and  Milcom  among  the  Am- 
monites.^ The  Phoenicians  also  used  this  practice, 
and  Israel  adopted  it  from  time  to  time,  in  spite  of  the 
righteous  anger  of  the  prophets.^  The  custom  was 
common  among  the  pre-Semitic  peoples,  but  even  the 
Babylonians  seem  to  have  adopted  it  for  a  time — the 
child  being  sacrificed  to  redeem  the  life  of  the  father,-^ 
while  among-  the  Carthaginians  the  extent  of  the 
practice  shocked  the   Romans, 

"  Flagrantibus  aris, 
Infandum  dictu,  parvos  imponere  natos."^ 

Human  sacrifices  were  common  enough  among 
the  Celts,  and  here,  too,  the  offering  of  children  was  a 
usual  practice.  In  Ireland  a  god  called  Cromm 
Cruach  (Bloody  Bow)  was  worshipped,  and  first-born 
children  were  sacrificed  to  him  ''with  numerous  cries 

^  2  Kings  iii.  27  ;  recent  excavations  in  Palestine  have  shown 
the  extent  to  which  the  custom  prevailed  among  the  Canaanites.  A 
"High  Place "  was  unearthed,  and  a  number  of  jars  containing  the 
bones  of  newly-born  infants  discovered — the  remains  of  ghastly 
sacrifices. — Times  report,  23rd  June  1903. 

2  The  Phoenicians  offered  "  the  dearest  of  their  offspring," 
Eusebius,  PrcBp.^  i.  10  ;  Lev.  xx.  seq.  ;  Ps.  cvi.  36  ;  2  Chron.  xxviii.  3  ; 
Jer.  vii.  31. 

■'  Sayce,  Gifford  Lecture^  i903>  ?•  467. 

*  Silius  Italicus^  iv.  767. 


426  THE  SACRIFICE  OF  A  CHILD 

and  wailings,"  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining-  milk  and 
corn.  Similarly  we  are  told  that  the  Fomore  (inter- 
preted as  gfods  of  darkness  and  night),  required  a 
third  of  the  children,  corn,  and  milk  belonging-  to 
each  tribe,  on  November  first.^  There  is  sufficient 
evidence  to  show  that  the  practice  occurred  sporadi- 
cally among-  Scandinavians  and  Greeks,  in  Peru, 
China,  Melanesia,  and  Samoa.^  That  it  was  uni- 
versal and  inevitable  is  not  yet  proved,  but,  if  our 
interpretation  of  the  promise  made  in  folk-tales  is 
correct,  it  was,  at  least  all  too  common.  In  most  of 
these  stories  it  is  a  ruler  who  offers  his  child,  and  Dr 
Frazer  has  noted  how  often  a  king's  son  is  devoted  as 
a  victim,  because  being-  of  royal  he  is  ipso  facto  of 
divine  blood.  Meanwhile,  a  few  instances  of  child 
sacrifice  at  a  lower  stag"e  of  culture  may  be  referred 
to.  Among  the  Khonds,  who  sacrificed  young 
maidens  to  the  earth  goddess,  some  would  sell  their 
children  for  this  purpose,  and  generally  the  victim 
was  purchased  from  people  of  another  race.  Compare 
with  this  the  bargain  made  by  the  parent  in  our  tales. 
Similar  sacrifices  occurred  with  the  Pawnees,  the  girl 
victim  being  carefully  tended  for  six  months  before- 


^  Book  of  Leinster^  p.  213.     Cf.  the  Leabhar  Gabala. 

2  Mallet,  North.  Ant.,  i.  112,  134.  For  the  Greeks  it  is  sufficient  to 
cite  Agamemnon's  sacrifice  of  Iphigenia  and  the  myth  of  the  annual 
oflfering  of  boys  and  girls  to  the  Minotaur.  Peru.,  Reville,  Hibbert 
Lecture^  p.  218.  Melanesia.,  Codrington,  p.  135.  Samoa,  see  p.  402 
supra.  Mr  J.  G.  Frazer  thinks  that  the  account  of  the  slaughter  of 
the  first-born  of  Egypt  before  the  Exodus  is  a  corrupt  following  of  an 
earlier  story  which  told  how  the  first-born  of  Israel  had  to  be  put  to 
death.  This  he  assumes  to  have  been  a  regular  custom.  The  argu- 
ment is  as  ingenious  and  as  worthless  as  many  of  those  used  to 
explain  away  the  force  of  the  words  in  the  Prayer-book  which  pre- 
scribe the  position  of  the  priest  at  celebrating.  The  Australian 
instance  of  sacrifice  of  the  first-born  is  discounted  by  his  own  state- 
ment that  there  is  no  propitiation  of  gods  by  sacrifice  there.  Neither 
there  is,  but  there  is  infanticide,  quite  a  different  practice,  and  one 
which  an  uneducated  settler  might  easily  confuse  with  a  religious  rite. 
— See  Golden  Bough,  iii.  48. 


THE  FOUNDATION  SACRIFICE  427 

hand  ;  while  at  Lagos  the  young  girl  who  was  impaled 
at  the  spring-  equinox  was  bred  up  in  the  king's 
seraglio,  and  her  mind  so  wrought  on  by  the  priests 
that  she  would  go  cheerfully  to  the  sacrifice.^  If  the 
practice  of  selling  children  for  sacrificial  victims  was 
ever  common,  it  might  easily  give  rise  in  later  times 
to  the  idea  of  selling  a  child  to  the  devil.  A  very 
striking  case  from  the  Brass  River  territory  of  an 
animal  divinity  seeking  its  own  victim  is  described  by 
Count  de  Cardi.  The  ju-ju  snake  sometimes  secured 
a  child  by  going  into  a  house  when  the  elders  were 
absent  or  asleep.  If  the  mother  attempted  to  rescue 
it,  she  was  either  killed  or  fined.  ^  Such  an  instance 
would  make  an  admirable  folk-tale  :  indeed,  the  pro- 
cedure of  the  snake  is  not  unlike  that  of  the  sea  in 
the  Naxos  story,  or  of  the  Sea-maiden  in  the  Gaelic 
tale. 

The  custom  of  sacrificing  a  human  victim  at  the 
foundation  of  any  building,  to  propitiate  the  earth- 
spirit,  or  to  provide  a  guardian  ghost  for  the  building 
itself,  may  also  have  influenced  the  Promise  stories, 
especially  as  the  victim  was  most  frequently  a  child. 
Copious  legends,  Celtic,  Teutonic,  Slavonic,  and 
Scandinavian,  show  that  the  custom  was  once 
common  enough  in  Europe  ;  indeed,  the  necessity  for 
such  a  sacrifice  remained  till  quite  recently  in  folk- 
belief^  The  practice  existed  among  the  Semites : 
Hiel,  the  Bethelite,  laid  the  foundation  of  Jericho  in 
his  first-born  son ;  there  is  a  universal  belief  in  such 
sacrifices  in  India ;  we  find  it  also  in  Africa,  in 
Borneo,  and  in  China.  A  curious  illustration  of 
those  tales  where  a  child  is  bought  from  its  parents 
occurs    in    a    Thuringian    legend    of   the    castle    of 

^  MacPherson,  Mem.  of  India,  p.  115.  G.  Allen,  Attis,  pp.  53, 
117. 

■^  Miss  Kingsley,  p.  490. 

"  Nennius,  Hist.  Brit.,  p.  40  ;  O'Curry,  Manners  of  Ancient  Irish, 
i.  Intro.  133. 


428  THE  SACRIFICE  OF  A  CHILD 

Liebenstein,  where  the  mother  sold  her  child,  which 
was  then  walled  in.^ 

Here  two  independent  traces  of  child-sacrifice  may- 
be referred  to.  The  folk-lore  of  witches  in  connection 
with  child-birth  in  Scandinavian  and  Teutonic 
countries  shows  them  as  at  once  beneficent  and 
harmful.  They  assist  the  mother  and  lighten  her 
pains,  but  they  will  exercise  evil  influence  on  those 
who  do  not  submit  to  them,  and  all  children  born  on 
Walpurgis  night  belong-  to  them.  Mr  Karl  Pearson 
sees  in  this  a  relic  of  the  time  when  the  powerful 
priestess  of  the  Mother-age  civilisation  acted  as 
''medicine- woman  and  midwife,  relieving  human 
suffering,  putting  the  symbol  of  the  goddess  in  the 
cradle,  but  taking  her  tithe  of  human  life  for  sacrifice 
to  the  goddess."^  Witches,  in  current  belief,  kill  and 
eat  children,  boiling  them  down — relic  of  a  sacrificial 
feast  to  the  goddess  of  fertility.  There  is  nothing 
improbable  in  this  theory ;  indeed,  it  is  difficult  to 
explain  otherwise  how  such  a  piece  of  witch-lore  could 
have  arisen. 

Again,  and  still  more  universally,  the  fairy- 
changeling  superstition  may,  in  part  at  least,  have 
had  a  sacrificial  origin.  Mother  and  child  were  in 
special  danger  from  the  "good  people,"  because,  in 
popular  belief,  they  had  to  give  a  tribute  of  a  living 
soul  to  the  devil,  and  preferred  giving  a  human  child 
to  one  of  their  own.^  This,  a  late  popular  explanation 
of  the  changeling  superstition,    may  be  dismissed. 

1  I  Kings  xvi.  34.  F.L.R.,  iv.  186.  Waitz,  Anthropologie,  ii. 
197.  St  John,  i.  46.  Dennys,  p.  133.  G.  Allen,  op.  cit.^  p.  119. 
Many  other  instances  will  be  found  in  a  paper  by  Mr  Baring- 
Gould,  Murray s  Magazine,  March  1887.  Cf.  Tylor,  Prim.  Cult, 
vol.  i. 

^  Chances  of  Death,  ii.  32. 

^  Scott's  Minstrelsy,  p.  221.  Lady  Wilde,  Ancient  Legends,  i.  70. 
Keightley,  Fairy  Mythology,  passim.  Mr  Nutt  offers  another 
theory  for  the  origin  of  the  changeling  superstition,  Voyage  of  Bran, 
i.  229. 


FAIRIES  AS  KIDNAPPERS  429 

But,  as  there  is  reason  to  believe  that,  in  one 
aspect,  fairies  were  once  a  living'  race — a  pygrny 
people  living  in  different  parts  of  Europe,  who,  as 
many  folk-tales  show,  stole  the  fair  women  and 
children  of  the  taller  race,  it  is  quite  possible  that 
one  reason  of  their  taking  the  children  was  for  sacri- 
ficial purposes  in  order  that  their  own  children  might 
be  exempt. 

Other  beliefs  and  customs  may  also  have  had 
some  influence  in  shaping-  these  tales  of  a  promise. 
There  is  a  universal  belief  that  mother  and  child 
are  particularly  at  the  mercy  of  evil  spirits  as  of 
fairies,^  but  such  a  belief  is  in  itself  enough  to  have 
originated  the  idea  of  a  father  barg-aining  with  a  spirit 
for  his  child.  Last  of  all,  the  common  practice  of 
infanticide,  orig^inating  as  a  means  of  relief  from 
scarcity,^  and  the  custom  of  selling-  children  into 
slavery — a  custom  which  actually  existed  in  cases 
of  necessity  in  Saxon  Eng-land — may  quite  conceiv- 
ably have  coloured  the  stories  which  have  been 
discussed,  and  many  of  which  speak  of  a  poor  man, 
burdened  with  children,  selling  or  giving  up  one  of 
them  almost  without  regret. 

The  memory  of  all  such  sacrifices  and  customs 
would  remain  long  after  the  sacrifices  themselves  had 
passed  away.  In  many  cases,  such  is  the  persistence 
of  custom,  the  sacrificial  ceremony  was  gone  through 
in  mimicry  ages  after  the  need  for  it  had  passed 
away ;  ^  in  others  it  survived  as  a  curious  piece  of 

^  Cf.  Crawley,  Mystic  Rose,  passim. 

2  See  Maclennan,  Studies  in  Ancient  History^  chap,  vii.,  "  Female 
Infanticide." 

^  Among  the  Basaga,  who  worship  trees,  a  little  girl  is  laid  at 
the  foot  of  one  ;  the  sacrificial  ritual  is  gone  through  ;  a  slight 
incision  is  made  in  her  neck,  and  she  is  thrown  into  the  water, 
where  a  man  is  ready  to  catch  her.  She  is  then  dedicated  to 
a  life  of  perpetual  virginity.  In  former  times  the  actual  sacrifice 
took  place. — Johnston,  ii.  720.  Many  similar  empty  rites  might  be 
cited. 


430  THE  SACRIFICE  OF  A  CHILD 

folk-lore  symbolism.  But  the  memory  of  such 
sacrifices  must  have  been  weakened  as  time  went 
on,  and  gradually  took  the  form  of  grivingf  up  a  child 
to  some  power  more  or  less  maleficent.  That  the 
child  should  have  escaped  may  have  been  a  reflection 
of  actual  escape  from  sacrifice ;  more  often,  per- 
haps, it  arose  from  the  necessity  of  finding  a  fitting 
sequel  to  the  injustice  of  handing-  the  child  over 
to  such  a  power.  That  the  designs  of  that  power 
were  evil,  is  shadowed  forth  in  some  tales  which 
have  been  cited ;  but  as  the  idea  of  child-sacri- 
fice became  more  and  more  incredible  we  find 
that  the  being  became  benevolent,  and  only 
meant  well  to  the  child  in  depriving  it  of 
parental  care.  Hence  arose  those  tales  in  which 
Christ,  the  Virgin,  or  a  saint  becomes  the  child's 
godparent,  and  brings  him  to  prosperity  and 
success. 

The  practice  of  dedicating  a  child  to  a  divinity  has 
been  indicated  in  some  of  the  tales  cited,  and  it, 
rather  than  actual  sacrifice,  has  doubtless  helped  to 
shape  the  Promise  formula  in  some  respects.  This 
comes  out  most  clearly  in  tales  of  the  Transformation 
Combat  cycle,  already  discussed,  in  which  the  father 
either  promises  or  apprentices  his  son  to  a  sorcerer  or 
demon.^  Then,  as  in  Danish  and  other  versions,  if 
he  cannot  find  him  at  the  end  of  four  years,  the  boy 
will  remain  in  the  sorcerer's  power  for  ever.  In  all 
cases  the  boy  escapes  with  great  difficulty.  The 
sorcerer,  of  course,  is  the  earlier  medicine-m.an  or 
priest.  We  have  already  noted  the  case  of  the 
fetich  -  child  among  the  Otchi  negroes,  and  the 
dedication  of  the  first-born  to  Yah-weh  among 
the  Semites,  e.g.,  Samuel.  So  Miss  Kingsley  in- 
forms us  that  it  is  usual  for  parents  in  West 
Africa  to  ''apprentice"  a  child  to  the  fetich-priest, 

^  See  p.  164  supra^  "Transformation." 


THE  FETICH  PRIEST  431 

who  gets  a  premium  with  him.^  This  is  not 
unlike  the  introductory  episode  of  some  of  our 
tales. 

^  Miss  Kingsley,  p.  171.  Cf.  Maurice  Delafosse,  L Anthropologies 
iv.  433)  who  says  that  among  the  Agni  of  the  Gold  Coast  Httle  girls 
have  to  be  given  up  to  the  confraternities  of  women  priests,  who  are 
much  feared,  with  the  view  of  bringing  them  up  in  perpetual  virginity. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

JACK   AND   THE   BEANSTALK 

The  mythological  school  represented  by  the  writings 
of  De  Gubernatis,  Cox,  Max  M  tiller,  and  others, 
have  found  the  origin  of  folk-tales  in  the  myths  of  the 
Aryan  race.  Folk-tales  are  the  detritus  of  such 
Aryan  myths,  when  the  meaning  of  the  myths  them- 
selves was  long  forgotten.  The  whole  theory  falls  to 
the  ground  when  it  is  discovered  that  exactly  similar 
stories  are  told  by  non-Aryan  races,  and  that  the 
incidents  of  such  stories  are  easily  explainable  by 
actual  customs  and  ideas  of  savages  and  primitive 
folk  everywhere.^ 

On  the  other  hand,  many  folk- tales  have  originated 
as  myths  explanatory  of  existing  customs,  or  by 
way  of  explaining  phenomena  which  seemed  to 
depend  on  these  customs,  and  when  the  customs  fell 
into  desuetude  the  myths  remained  as  folk-tales. 
The  incidents  of  existing  folk-tales,  again,  have 
frequently  been  embodied  in  mythologies — Greek, 
Celtic,  Japanese.^  Thus  there  is  throughout  an 
intimate  connection  between  mythology  and  folk- 
tales, though  not  of  the  kind  which  De  Gubernatis 
and  others  imagined.  In  studying  the  well-known 
story  of  Jack  and  the  Beanstalk  we  shall  see  an 
excellent  example  of  that  connection ;  a  primitive 
mythological    way    of   regarding    the    universe    has 

1  The  new  way  of  regarding  the  Aryan  problem  makes  the  theory 
still  more  untenable. 


THE  ENGLISH  VERSION  433 

sug"g"ested  and  given  rise  to  the  chief  incident  of  our 
well-known  nursery  tale. 

The  main  incidents  in  that  story  are  these.  Jack 
was  the  idle  son  of  a  poor  widow,  who  sent  him  to 
sell  her  cow.  Attracted  by  some  coloured  beans  at 
the  butcher's,  he  bartered  the  cow  for  them,  to  his 
mother's  disgust.  Next  morning  he  found  that  the 
beans,  which  his  mother  had  kicked  away,  had  taken 
root,  and  formed,  by  intertwining,  a  ladder  whose 
top  was  lost  in  the  clouds.  He  climbed  up  and  found 
himself  in  a  strange  land,  where  a  fairy  met  him  and 
told  him  how  a  giant  had  murdered  his  father,  ill- 
treated  his  mother,  and  defrauded  him  of  his 
inheritance.  It  was  now  ruled  that  Jack  should 
revenge  himself  on  the  giant.  The  fairy  directed  him 
to  the  giant's  house,  where  he  asked  for  shelter. 
This  the  compassionate  giant's  wife  gave  him,  though 
in  fear  and  trembling,  lest  her  cannibal  husband 
should  discover  Jack.  From,  his  hiding-place  he  saw 
the  giant  at  his  supper,  and  after  the  meal  was  over, 
observed  that  a  hen  was  brought  him,  which  he 
commanded  to  lay  an  egg  of  gold.  Then  the  giant 
slept ;  Jack  crept  forth  from  his  hiding-place,  seized 
the  hen,  and  made  for  home.  There  he  could  not 
rest,  and  once  more  climbed  the  beanstalk,  gained 
admittance  to  the  giant's  house  as  before,  and  this 
time  stole  his  bags  of  gold.  At  the  third  visit  he 
made  off  with  the  golden  harp  which  played  of  its 
own  accord,  but  as  he  was  rushing  away  the  harp 
called  out  "  Master,"  and  the  giant  awoke  and 
pursued  him.  Down  the  road  they  both  ran ;  Jack 
reached  the  tree,  descended  to  the  garden,  and  before 
the  giant  had  climbed  down  very  far,  hacked  it  in 
two  close  to  the  root,  so  that  tree  and  giant  came 
tumbling  down,  and  the  giant  was  killed.  But,  of 
course,   the  way   to    the    upper    land  was    lost    for 


ever.^ 


^  Halliwell,  p.  175. 

2  E 


434  JACK  AND  THE  BEANSTALK 

This  Engflish  folk-tale  of  the  magic  bean  has  few 
if  any  complete  parallels  to  its  main  incidents,  so  far 
as  these  are  connected  with  the  tree.  Separately, 
they  have  a  wide  range.  The  opening  incident  of 
the  foolish  bargain  is  a  well-known  folk-tale ;  some- 
times the  hero  is  ruined  as  the  result  of  it ;  some- 
times, as  in  the  case  of  Jack,  though  in  quite  a 
different  way,  his  bargain  turns  to  fortune.  The 
thefts  from  the  giant,  the  speaking  harp,  and  the 
giant  s  death,  occur  in  many  tales,  some  of  which 
have  been  already  met  with.-^  What  is  peculiar 
to  our  story  is  the  tree  which  reaches  from  earth 
to  heaven.  Clearly  it  has  been  borrowed  from 
some  earlier  story  to  add  more  interest  to  another 
tale. 

This  is  also  evident  from  another  group  of  tales  in 
which  the  magic  tree  is  introduced.  That  group, 
already  discussed  in  the  chapter  dealing  with 
magical  objects,  relates  how  a  man  obtains  certain 
gifts  which  produce  food  and  riches.  They  are 
stolen,  but  the  thief  is  forced  to  replace  them  by 
means  of  a  magic  baton,  which  beats  him  until  he 
confesses  all.^  Several  stories  of  this  group  give  a 
different  turn  to  the  usual  introduction,  relating  how 
the  gifts  are  obtained,  by  borrowing  the  incident  of 
the  magic  tree.  The  usual  formula  is  that  a  poor 
man  is  possessed  of  a  single  bean,  which  he  plants. 
It  grows  and  grows  till  it  reaches  heaven.  He  climbs 
it,  arrives  in  heaven,  and  meets  St  Peter,  or  some- 
times (as  in  the  Lorraine  version)  God  himself,  who 
makes  him  a  present  of  the  magical  objects  one  after 
another,  after  which  the  story  continues  in  the 
stereotyped  fashion.  Of  this  there  are  Tuscan,  Breton. 
Lorraine,  and  Flemish  variants;  but  in  a  Corsican 
story  the  poor  man  arrives  in  a  land  where  he  sees  a 
chestnut-tree  so  high  that  it  reaches  to  heaven.     He 

»  Seep.  354.  2  See  p.  214. 


SLAVONIC  VERSIONS  435 

climbs   it  and    obtains    the    gfifts,    as   in   the   other 
stories.^ 

A  third  version  of  the  magfic-tree  story  bring-s  us 
nearer  what  I  imagine  to  be  its  primitive  form.  It 
occurs  mainly  as  a  Slavonic  tale,  and  readily  explains 
itself  from  Slavonic  ideas  of  the  future  life.  Among  the 
Slavs,  as  we  have  seen,  the  idea  that  the  dead  are  Yf 
alive  in  the  grave  and  do  not  go  elsewhere  is  miioh^^^j 
accentuated.^  But  apart  altogether  from  the  Christian 
doctrine  of  heaven,  and  connected  with  earlier  pagan 
belief,  it  is  held  that  there  is  a  magnificent  land 
beyond  the  sky,  where  dwell  supernatural  beings, 
wealthy  and  powerful.  That  country,  according  to 
folk-tale,  has  been  visited  by  favoured  mortals,  who 
have  returned,  like  Jack,  laden  with  its  spoils. 
Some  of  these  tales  are  fragmentary,  others  diverge 
into  other  stories.  One  relates  how  an  old  man  and 
woman  planted  each  a  cabbage.  The  old  man's 
cabbage  grew  to  the  sky ;  the  woman's  withered. 
He  climbed  up  and  up,  made  a  hole  in  the  sky,  and 
saw^  there  a  magic  mill  which  produced  all  sorts  of 
food,  of  which  he  ate  his  fill.  Then  he  returned  to 
earth  and  told  his  wife,  who  at  once  wished  to  go 
there.  The  old  man  carried  her  by  his  teeth  in  a 
sack,  but  as  he  climbed  his  foot  slipped,  and  the  old 
woman  fell  down  and  was  killed.  Other  variants 
have  a  bean  or  pea  ;  in  one  the  climber  finds  a  stove 
garnished  by  all  manner  of  desirable  food,  but 
watched  by  a  seven-eyed  goat.  He  charms  six  of  its 
eyes  to  sleep,  but  the  seventh  sees  him  steal  the  food, 
and  the  goat  calls  out  to  the  ** house-master,"  who 
turns  the  man  out.  When  he  comes  to  the  hole  he 
finds  the  peastalk  gone,  but  collecting  cobwebs  he 
makes  a  cord  and  descends.  From  the  variants  of 
this  story  group,  as  Mr  Ralston  points  out,  we  learn 

*  Pitre,  Novelle^  No.  29.     Sebillot,  i.   No.   12.     Cosquin,  ii.   168. 
Lootens,  Kindervertelsels^  No.  i.     Ortoli,  p.  171. 
-  See  p.  103. 


436  JACK  AND  THE  BEANSTALK 

of  a  plentiful  upper  region,  watched  by  many-eyed 
goats,  by  whom,  or  by  the  house-master,  the  intruder 
is  turned  out,  while  a  second  attempt  to  climb  does 
not  succeed,  or  even  ends  fatally.^ 

These  folk-tales,  and  especially  the  Slavonic  group, 
point  to  a  primitive  tale  or  myth  concerning  the  rela- 
tion existing  between  the  world  above  the  sky  and 
this  earth,  and  between  their  respective  inhabitants, 
and  relating  the  possibility  of  reaching  that  upper 
region.  What  that  primitive  story  may  have  been 
like  is  suggested  by  some  savage  folk-tales.  Here  is 
a  Dyak  version.  At  one  time  men  ate  only  fungi,  till 
a  party  of  Dyaks,  with  Si  Jura,  sailed  off  and  came 
to  a  whirlpool,  above  which  grew  an  enormous  tree 
out  of  the  sky,  its  branches  just  touching  the  waves. 
Si  Jura  climbed  it  to  get  fruit,  then  curiosity  over- 
coming him,  went  higher  till  he  reached  the  country  of 
the  Pleiades.  There  he  met  Si  Kira,  who  gave  him 
some  boiled  rice.  ''What!  eat  those  maggots!" 
cried  Si  Jura.  "They  are  not  maggots,  but 
rice,"  answered  Si  Kira,  who  thereupon  instructed 
him  in  rice-cultivation.  After  a  time  Si  Jura  looked 
into  a  jar  and  saw  his  home  and  friends,  and  grew 
homesick.  Si  Kira  cheered  him  up,  and  after  giving 
him  rice  seeds,  and  instructing  him  as  to  harvest 
feasts  and  omens,  let  him  down  to  his  father's  house 
by  a  long  rope.  Now  the  Dyaks  order  their  farming 
operations  by  the  position  of  the  Pleiades.^ 

A  Melanesian  tale  is  the  converse  of  this,  so  far  as 
the  lesson  of  civilisation  is  concerned.  Kamakajaku 
was  swallowed  by  a  fish,  which  carried  him  to  the 
sun-rising,  where  he  cut  his  way  through  by  means  of 
a  piece  of  obsidian.  He  followed  the  sun  in  its  course 
and  reached  the  heavens.  Going  on,  he  arrived  at 
the  village  where  the  sun's  children  lived,  and  taught 
them  how  to  make  fire  and  cook  food.  One  place, 
they  told  him,  was  tabu  ;  he  must  not  go  there.     But 

'  Ralston,  p.  291  seq.  ^  Ling  Roth,  i.  307. 


SAVAGE  VERSIONS  437 

after  a  time,  curiosity  overcame  him ;  he  went  there, 
took  up  a  stone,  and  found  beneath  it  a  hole  in  the 
sky.  Far  below  he  saw  his  native  village,  and  at  sight 
of  it  he  wept.  Then  the  people  of  the  sky,  taking*  pity 
upon  him,  lowered  him  down  to  earth  by  means  of 
canes  tied  together,  and  he  rejoined  his  friends,  who 
had  given  him  up  for  dead.  The  magic  tree  occurs 
in  a  Fijian  tale.  A  boy  was  the  son  of  a  Tongan 
woman  and  Tui  Langa,  king  of  the  sky.  He  setoff 
to  seek  his  father,  and  at  night  stuck  his  stick  in  the 
ground,  and  lay  down  to  sleep.  In  the  morning  he 
found  it  had  become  a  tree  which  reached  to  the  sky. 
Here  was  a  ready  means  of  reaching  his  father,  and, 
climbing  up,  he  introduced  himself  as  his  son.  Nothing 
is  said  of  how  he  was  received,  but  when  he  returned 
he  was  called  '*  The  Slayer  from  the  Sky,"  from  his 
habit  of  killing  the  local  gods  with  one  blow  of  his 
fist.^ 

An  Australian  story  relates  that  when  the  divinity 
Baiamee  left  this  earth,  all  the  flowers  withered. 
The  wirreenuns  (medicine-men)  longed  for  them,  and 
set  off  to  the  great  Oobi-oobi  mountain.  For  four 
days  they  climbed  it,  and  at  last  reached  the  summit, 
where  Baiamee's  spirit-messenger  asked  them  what 
they  sought  in  that  sacred  place.  On  learning  their 
wishes,  the  spirit  bade  the  attendant  spirits  of  the 
mountain  carry  them  to  Bullimah  or  heaven,  where 
they  could  pluck  its  fadeless  flowers  and  would  then 
be  carried  back  to  the  mountain.  So  they  returned 
and  gladdened  the  hearts  of  men  with  the  flowers  and 
with  the  spirit's  message  that  earth  would  never  be 
without  flowers  again.  Who  would  expect  such  a 
poetic  story  from  the  despised  black  fellows?  The 
mountain  reappears  in  a  Samoan  story.  Two  of 
Tangaloa's  heavenly  people  came  down  to  earth  and 
stole  Lu's  fowls.  He  went  up  to  heaven  from  the 
top  of  a  mountain  to  recover  them,  and  reached  the 

'  Codrington,  p.  365.     F.L.J.^  v.  256. 


438  JACK  AND  THE  BEANSTALK 

tenth  heaven,  where  Tangaloa  grave  him  his  daughter 
to  wife,  and  told  him  to  call  the  earth  Samoa.  ^ 

In  other  cases  the  ascent  is  made  to  recover  a  lost 
wife,  the  divine  lover  of  a  mortal.^  I  have  already 
referred  to  the  Maori  tale  of  Tawhaki  and  Hapai ;  in 
this  legend  he  recovered  her  by  climbing  up  to  the 
sky  on  a  spider's  web,  as  the  Melanesian  hero  brought 
back  his  ghost  wife.^  This  is  a  favourite  Polynesian 
story,  and  there  are  several  versions  of  it ;  in  one  the 
husband  ascends,  not  by  a  spider's  web,  but  by  a 
creeper  which  hung  down  from  heaven  and  had  taken 
root  in  the  earth.  There  is  also  a  Malay  variant,  in 
which  when  the  husband  pulls  out  the  single  white 
hair  from  the  head  of  Utahagi,  his  heavenly  wife,  she 
returns  to  the  sky.  There  he  and  her  child  rejoined 
her  by  clambering  up  the  rattans,  and  he,  like  Taw- 
haki, became  a  god.  These  are  variants  of  the  Swan- 
maiden  story,  in  which,  when  the  supernatural  wife 
returns  to  her  own  land,  her  husband  sets  out  to  seek 
her.  That  land  is  beyond  the  sea,  or  above  the  sky, 
but  in  the  latter  case  it  is  never  so  distinctly  stated  as 
here  how  the  husband  reached  it,  save,  perhaps,  in  the 
Melanesian  story  of  Qat.  His  wife  was  a  beautiful 
sky-woman,  whom  he  had  captured  by  taking  her 
wings.  Some  time  after,  his  mother  scolded  her  ;  her 
tears  made  a  hole  in  the  ground,  and  revealed  to  her 
the  hiding-place  of  her  wings.  She  put  them  on  and 
mounted  skywards.     On  his  return  Qat  shot  an  arrow 

*■  Parker,  2nd  series,  p.  84.     Turner,  p.  13. 

^  The  converse  idea — that  of  the  descent  of  a  mortal  to  the  region 
of  the  dead  to  rescue  a  dead  wife  or  friend  from  the  clutches  of  death, 
to  obtain  a  boon,  etc.,  is  well  known  in  mythology  and  folk-tale.  In 
Greek  mythology  the  story  is  told,  e._g:,  of  Herakles,  Dionysus, 
Orpheus,  Odysseus  ;  in  Babylonian,  of  Ishtar  and  of  Gilgames  ;  in 
Scandinavian,  of  Hermode.  Similar  myths  or  tales  are  found  among 
the  Finns,  Tartars,  Esthonians,  Hindus,  Chinese,  Japanese,  Ainos, 
Maoris,  Melanesians,  Red  Indians,  and  Eskimo.  Folk-tales  describing 
a  descent  to  the  underworld  will  be  found  on  pp.  178,  239,  326,  351,  388. 

■^  C/.  p.  347.  Grey,  p.  66.  Tylor,  Early  Hist.  Man.^  p.  346.  The 
Melanesian  tale  is  cited  on  p.  333. 


THE  MAGIC  TREE  439 

into  the  air  ;  it  stuck  in  the  sky.  Then  he  shot  many 
more  in  succession,  every  fresh  arrow  sticking  in  the 
one  before  it  until  he  was  able  to  climb  up  into  the 
sky  upon  them,  and  on  a  banyan  root  which  had 
followed  the  arrows.  He  recovered  his  wife  and  was 
descending  with  her,  when  a  man,  hoeing  in  the  sky, 
struck  the  banyan  root.  Poor  Qat  fell  dead,  and  the 
woman  flew  back  to  heaven.  The  banyan  root 
recalls  Jack's  beanstalk  ;  the  fate  of  Qat  is  the  fate  of 
other  stormers  of  the  sky  in  our  tales. ^ 

There  is  an  Algonquin  tale  in  which  the  maidens 
descend  from  the  sky  in  a  basket,  and  the  human 
lover  ascends  thither  with  the  one  he  has  captured ; 
while  the  descent  is  made  by  the  daughters  of  the  sun, 
in  a  Santal  version,  with  the  help  of  a  spider's  web. 
When  an  Arawak  hunter  went  to  the  sky  with  the 
vulture-maiden  whom  he  had  captured,  and  in- 
discreetly longed  for  earth,  her  relations  set  him  on  a 
prickly  tree,  from  which  spiders  with  their  webs  and 
birds  with  their  wings  helped  him  to  reach  the  earth.^ 
The  idea  of  reaching  or  leaving  the  upper  world  by 
various  means,  tree,  spider's  web,  basket,  is  thus 
well-marked  in  those  versions  of  the  Swan-maiden 
group  of  tales  in  which  the  lost  wife  is  a  divine 
daughter  of  the  sky. 

The  magic  tree  reaching  from  earth  to  heaven  is 
again  found  in  stories  relating  how  the  sun  was 
captured  by  a  mortal.  The  Tawyans,  a  Mongol 
people,  were  once  very  powerful,  but  were  ruined 
through  trying  to  catch  the  sun.  ''  Building  a  sort  of 
Jacob's  ladder,  they  mounted  higher  and  higher ;  but 
growing  tired,  quarrelled  amongst  themselves,  and  one 
day  while  half  of  them  were  clambering  up  the  pole, 
the  other  half  below  cut  it  down  just  as  they  were 

'  Codrington,  p.  397.  This  Swan-maiden  story  is  a  close  parallel 
to  European  and  other  versions  in  which  the  mother-in-law  is  to 
blame  for  the  wife  recovering  her  wings,  etc. 

-  Farrer,  p.  256.     Cole,  Indian  Antiquary^  1875.     Brett,  p.  29. 


440  JACK  AND  THE  BEANSTALK 

about  to  seize  the  sun."     In  the  Kalevala,  Vaina- 
moinen,  by  his  magic  power,  makes  a  fir-tree  grow  till 
it  touches  the  sky.     The  moon  and  the  Great  Bear 
constellation  rested  on  its  branches.     Ilmarinen  was 
persuaded  to  climb  the  tree  to  get  them,  but  was 
blown  off  by  a  magic  wind  raised  by  Vainamoinen, 
and    we    hear  no  more  of   the    tree.      Among  the 
American- Indians  the  hero  of  the  Sun-catching  story 
was  more  successful.      The  Wyandots  say  that  a 
strong  child,   having    killed    the    destroyers    of  his 
parents,  wished  to  go  to  heaven,  and  climbed  a  tree 
for  that  purpose.     The  tree  was  too  short ;  he  blew 
upon  it  and  lengthened  it,  till  at  last  it  brought  him 
to  the  beautiful  land  above  the  skies.     He  descended 
to  fetch  his  sister,  and  then  returned,  breaking  down 
the  tree  so  that  none  could  follow  him.     Later  he  set 
snares  for  game,  but  captured  the  sun  instead,  and  so 
long  as  it  was  in  the  snare  day  ceased  on  the  earth 
till  it  was  set  free  by  a  mouse.     The  story  is  also  told 
among  the  Dog-rib  Indians  of  the  first  man.     A  piece 
of  wood  which   he  stuck  in  the  earth  grew  till  it 
reached  the  sky.      A  squirrel  ran  up  it,   and  was 
chased  by  the  hero,  Chapewee,  who  set  a  snare  for  it 
on  the  plain  of  the  sky,   catching  the  sun  instead. 
Many    animals    were    sent  to    release  it,   but  were 
reduced  to  ashes.     The  mole  alone  was  successful, 
but  it  lost  its  eyes  and  scorched  its  face,  and  that  is 
why  the  mole  is  blind  and  has  a  brown  nose.^ 

These  widely  separate  stories,  so  similar  in  their 
incidents,  of  the  ascent  to  heaven  by  a  tree  and  the 
obtaining  therefrom  of  some  possession  by  theft  or  by 
gift,  have  their  origin  in  man's  myth-making  faculty. 
*'  Why"  was  as  much  the  question  of  early  man  as  it 
is  of  the  child  or  the  scientist,  and  he  was  always 
wanting  to  know  the  causes  of  things.     All  parts  of 

1  Keane,  Man:  Past  and  Present,  p.  191.  Kalevala,  Rune  x. 
Tylor,  op.  cit.,  pp.  342-3,  from  Schoolcraft,  iii.  320,  and  Richardson, 
Narrative  of  Fra?iklin's  Second  Expedition,  p.  291. 


HEAVEN  AND  EARTH  441 

the  universe  were  as  much  living-  as  himself ;  heaven 
and  earth,  sun  and  moon,  mountain  and  river,  were 
persons.  Thus  he  saw  the  heaven  above  him  and 
the  earth  beneath  him,  and  at  once  concluded  that 
these  two  vast  persons  must  be  man  and  wife.  Why 
then  did  they  remain  apart,  and  how  had  they  been 
separated?  By  their  children,  said  the  Polynesians, 
and  especially  by  Tane-mahuta,  the  god  of  the  forest, 
planting-  his  head  on  mother  earth  and  pressing  with 
his  feet  against  the  sky.^  In  other  words,  the  lofty 
forest  trees  were  believed  to  separate  heaven  and 
earth.  From  this  it  was  an  easy  step  to  suppose 
that  access  to  heaven  could  be  gained  by  climbing 
some  lofty  tree.  Ancient  Greeks,  Hindus,  Chinese, 
and  Red  Indians,  to  mention  a  few  examples,  have 
similar  ways  of  accounting  for  the  separation.^ 

The  next  step  was  to  suppose  that  **  somewhere, 
surely,  afar  "  there  was  some  way  of  reaching  heaven 
from  earth.  The  apparent  meeting  of  sky  and  earth 
at  the  horizon  helped  this  view;  thus,  in  later 
Egyptian  mythology,  heaven  is  represented  as  a 
vast  man  bending  like  a  bow  above  the  earth,  which 
he  touches  with  his  hands  and  feet.  Between  are 
gods  and  men.^  Sometimes,  as  in  Japanese  myth- 
olog"yj  it  was  believed  that  the  sky  was  supported  by 
a  pillar,  while  the  country  above  where  the  gods 
dwelt  was  reached  by  a  bridge  or  ladder.  An  arrow- 
shot  from  earth  could  reach  the  sky,  and  make  a  hole 
in  it.*    The  early   Egyptians  had  a  similar   belief. 

*  Grey,  chap.  i.  In  Savage  Island  it  is  held  that  the  first  human 
beings,  finding  themselves  hampered  for  room,  separated  Earth  and 
Heaven  by  force. — Basil  Thomson,  Savage  Island^  p.  85. 

2  In  the  Red  Indian  myth  a  world-tree  occurs,  but  it  forms  the 
ladder  from  the  lower  world  to  the  earth's  surface.  When  men  first 
climbed  thither,  they  found  the  sky  resting  on  the  earth,  and  Matcito, 
one  of  their  hero-gods,  removed  it  upwards  by  magical  means. — 
Smithsonian  Inst.  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  Report^  1881,  p.  25. 

3  Wallis  Budge,  Papyrus  of  Ani^  ciii. 

^  Chamberlain,  Ko-ji-ki,  pp.  18,  19  ;  Griffis,  Rel.  of  Japan,  p.  69. 


442  JACK  AND  THE  BEANSTALK 

Heaven  was  supported  by  four  pillars,  and  its  floor 
was  made  of  a  huge  plate  of  iron.  The  tops  of  the 
mountains  reached  nearly  to  this  plate,  but  the  dead 
gained  access  to  it  by  means  of  ladders.  So  the 
people  of  Borneo  believe  that  Kina  Balu,  their  lofty 
mountain,  is  so  near  heaven  that  all  g"ood  people  can 
easily  reach  it  from  the  top,  while  the  wicked  for  ever 
scramble  up  the  side  only  to  fall  down  again.  The 
Greeks  had  their  myth  of  the  Titans  piling  Mount 
Ossa  on  Olympus,  and  Mount  Pelion  on  Ossa  ''with 
the  trembling  forest  leaves,''  in  order  to  scale  heaven, 
as  in  the  Semitic  myth  the  builders  of  the  tower  of 
Babel  thought  to  reach  heaven  by  its  means.  The 
abode  of  Baiamee,  as  we  have  seen,  is  reached  from  a 
mountain-top  in  an  Australian  story,  as  is  Tangaloa's 
heaven  in  the  Samoan  tale.  According  to  pagan 
Slavonic  belief,  the  dead  had  to  climb  a  steep 
mountain  of  glass,  on  the  top  of  which  Paradise  was 
situated.  This  idea  reappears  in  Slavonic  and 
Scandinavian  tales,  in  which  the  young  hero  rescues 
a  princess,  or  gains  the  hand  of  a  fair  being  from  the 
top  of  such  a  mountain.^ 

The  mountain  suggests,  however,  that  heaven  is 
far  off ;  the  earlier  idea  is  that  it  is  near,  it  lies  about 
tis  in  our  infancy.  To  early  man,  looking  up  to  the 
heavens  through  the  leafy  forest,  it  must  have  seemed, 
as  it  did  to  the  Polynesian  myth-maker,  that  the  sky 
rested  on  the  tops  of  the  trees.  Then  as  it  seemed  to 
recede  into  a  remoter  distance,  arose  the  fable  of  one 
particular  lofty  tree  which  joined  heaven  and  earth, 

^  Budge,  Egyptian  MagiCy  p.  51.  Pryer,  J. A. I.,  1886,  p.  233. 
Odyssey,  x\.  347.  Genesis  xi.  Ralston,  Songs  of  the  Russian  People, 
p.  109  ;  cf.  p.  368  supra.  Sometimes  the  heaven  of  the  gods  is 
situated  on  a  lofty  mountain-top,  like  the  Greek  Olympus,  or  the 
Babylonian  Arallu.  So  the  Kirghiz  say  that  on  the  top  of  Mus- 
tagh-ata  (like  Mount  Demavend  in  Persia)  is  an  ancient  city  built  in  the 
days  of  universal  happiness.  Since  that  ceased  there  has  been  no 
intercourse  between  its  inhabitants,  who  are  still  happy,  and  the 
people  of  this  earth. — Sven  Hedin,  Through  Asia,  i.  221. 


THIi  WORLD  TREE  443 

as  the  mountains  which  the  clouds  touched  did  in 
other  cases.  Here  is  the  point  de  repere  of  our 
magical  trees,  as  it  is  also  of  the  famous  world-tree 
Igdrasil  of  the  Scandinavians,  its  roots  in  Hel,  ''its 
bougfhs  the  History  of  Nations,  the  rustle  of  it  the  noise 
of  Human  Existence,"  its  top  reaching"  to  Heaven.  In 
the  Kalevala  we  hear  of  a  tree  which,  at  the  beginning 
of  things,  grew  up  above  all  trees  till  it  touched  the 
sky  and  darkened  the  sun  and  moon.  But  at 
Vainamoinen's  request  a  giant  was  sent  to  hew  it 
down.^  Such  a  world-tree  is  that  of  the  Polynesians, 
sixty  miles  high,  or  that  other  which  forms  a  ladder 
to  heaven.  On  its  different  sections  are  various 
repulsive  insects  which  many  people  dare  not  pass. 
Those  who  can,  reach  the  clear  branches  above,  from 
which,  as  they  sway  to  and  fro  in  the  wind,  they  are 
swung  off  into  heaven.  In  Mexican  mythology  the 
brothers  Quetzalcoatl  and  Tezcatlipoca  after  having, 
by  their  strife,  caused  the  heavens  to  fall,  raised  them 
aloft  and  rested  them  on  two  mighty  trees,  The  Tree 
of  the  Mirror  and  the  Beautiful  Great  Rose-tree,  on 
which  they  have  ever  since  remained.  I  may  refer  to 
a  curious  variation  of  the  world-tree  idea  among  the 
Andamanese.  Earth,  not  heaven,  rests  on  a  huge 
tree  which  will  one  day  be  upset  by  an  earthquake. 
The  living  and  the  dead  will  then  change  places  ; 
hence  the  latter  give  the  tree  an  occasional  shake 
to  hasten  on  matters  and  so  displace  the  wicker 
ladder  which  connects  it  with  heaven.  The  people 
of  Guiana  know  of  a  different  kind  of  tree — 
the  Ceiba-tree,  of  vast  dimensions,  its  branches 
in    the    clouds,    forming    the    seat   of  the    Creator, 

^  Carlyle,  Heroes^  p.  19.  Kalevala^  Rune  ii.  The  Bodhi  tree 
in  Ceylon  is  revered  by  Buddhists,  and  is  held  to  be  a  parable 
of  the  universe ;  its  trunk  the  connection  between  the  visible 
and  invisible  worlds  ;  the  up  and  down  growth  of  its  branches  and 
roots  the  restless  striving  of  man  after  perfection.— Miss  Busk,  p. 
332- 


444  JACK  AND  THE  BEANSTALK 

who  made  all  living  things  from  its  twigs  and 
bark.^ 

Sometimes  the  method  of  reaching  the  not  very 
distant  sky-land  is  more  or  less  magical.  The 
Australians  have  a  story  of  two  girls  who  escaped 
from  their  persecutor,  Beereeun,  and,  helped  by  their 
dead  relatives,  became  stars.  Beereeun  thereupon 
took  a  spear  and  threw  it  up  to  the  sky,  where  it  hung 
dangling  down.  Another  spear  caught  on  to  it, 
until,  by  throwing  several,  he  had  made  a  rope  of 
spears,  up  which  (like  the  Melanesian  hero  with  his 
arrows)  he  climbed  to  the  sky,  where  he  is  still 
pursuing  the  star-maidens.  Since  then  his  tribe 
have  been  good  climbers.  Compare  with  this  the 
Tchippewaya  story  of  the  giant  who  gave  two 
brothers  two  arrows,  forbidding  them  to  run  and 
take  them  up  after  shooting  them,  lest  evil  should 
befall.  The  younger  did  so,  when  the  arrow 
mounted  higher  and  higher  till  it  carried  him  to  the 
land  above  the  sky,  whence,  after  some  strange 
adventures  with  two  girls,  ''of  manners  none  and 
customs  nasty,"  their  mother  lowered  him  to  earth 
by  a  rope.^ 

Sometimes  the  intercourse  between  the  land  above 
the  sky  and  this  earth  is  referred  to  a  distant  past, 
and  since  the  connection  has  been  destroyed  no  one 
has  ever  been  able  to  reach  that  land.  This  has 
already  been  suggested  in  some  of  our  folk-tales  ; 
usually  it  is  part  of  a  myth  explaining  the  origin  of 
man,  who,  as  is  sometimes  thought,  came,  though 
not  always,  trailing"  clouds  of  glory,  from  that  glad 
upper  world.     According  to  some  of  these  myths,  the 

1  Turner,  p.  199.  Brinton,  American  Hero  Myths^  p.  75.  Keane, 
op.  cit.,  p.  160.     Brett,  p.  7. 

•^  Parker,  2nd  sen,  p.  11.  Petitot,  p.  352.  In  the  Australian  story 
cited  on  p.  340,  the  girls  set  to  cut  the  tabued  trees  are  carried  with  the 
trees  to  the  sky.  Cf.  an  Algonquin  story  where  two  girls  who  have 
become  the  wives  of  stars,  descend  to  earth  on  a  hemlock-tree  through 
a  squirrel's  magic. —  Leland,  A.L.,  p.  142  ;  and  cf.  p.  344. 


GUIANA  MYTHS  445 

descent  is  made  by  means  of  a  tree,  thougfh  other 
methods  occur,  as  in  the  myth  of  the  Finnish  Vogfuls, 
who  say  that  the  first  pair  descended  in  a  cradle  of 
silver  wire,  while  their  son  became  a  squirrel,  climbed 
a  tree  to  the  sky  and  came  down  again.  So  in  an 
Eskimo  myth  the  man  and  woman  by  whom  the  earth 
was  peopled  fell  from  heaven.^  But  the  most  elaborate 
myths  of  this  kind  are  found  among-  the  Caribs  and 
the  Indians  of  Guiana.  The  Caribs  say  that  men 
used  to  live  above  the  sky,  and  descended  to  cleanse 
the  earth.  While  so  engaged,  the  clouds  on  which 
they  came  receded  and  they  had  to  remain  below. 
However,  the  creator  made  a  huge  tree,  which  was 
covered  with  all  kinds  of  food.  This  was  cut  down, 
and  each  man  took  slips  from  it  and  planted  them 
for  his  own  use.  Another  tree  reached  from  earth 
to  heaven,  and  during  a  great  flood  people  climbed 
it,  headed  by  a  woman,  who  stuck  half  -  way 
and  was  turned  to  stone,  while  all  who  tried  to 
pass  her  were  also  petrified.  The  survivors  took 
refuge  on  Mount  Komoo,  and  were  saved  from 
drowning.^ 

These  two  myths  seem  to  be  combined  in  one 
current  among  the  Korobahana,  who  say  men  came 
from  the  sky  by  means  of  a  rope,  which  broke  by  the 
weight  of  a  heavy  woman,  thus  for  ever  cutting  off 
communication  between  those  who  were  below  and 
those  left  above.  The  latter  were  given  wings,  and 
flew  down  to  earth,  where  they  live  among  the  trees  as 
parrots.  In  the  Guarani  myth,  men  lived  above  the 
sky,  till  one  day  a  hunter,  pursuing  a  bird,  saw  it 
disappear  into  a  pit.  He  looked  down  and  beheld, 
far  below,  forests,  rivers,  animals,  and  birds.  Having 
told  his  fellows  of  this,  they  made  a  rope-ladder,  down 

*  Nansen,  Eskimo  Life^  p.  259. 

2  Brett,  pp.  103,  107.  The  tree  was  at  first  known  only  to  the 
tapir,  who  selfishly  kept  it  to  himself ;  then  the  rat  insisted  on  a  share  ; 
finally  men  discovered  and  claimed  it. 


446  JACK  AND  THE  BEANSTALK 

which  he  descended  and  captured  a  deer.  Returning 
with  great  difficulty,  he  shared  the  unwonted  luxury 
with  the  others,  who  resolved  to  visit  the  earth.  The 
descent  was  safely  made,  but  the  last  woman  stuck  in 
the  hole,  where  she  remains  to  this  day,  making-  all 
return  to  the  sky  impossible.  The  Mara  people  of 
the  Gulf  coast  of  Australia  believe  that  once  a  great 
pine-tree  reached  from  heaven  to  earth,  and  by  its 
means  their  ancestors  used  to  climb  up  and  down 
between  the  two  regions.  But  Kakan,  the  hawk, 
discovered  the  secret  of  fire-making,  and,  while 
disputing  with  another  hawk,  set  fire  to  the 
earth.  The  tree  was  destroyed,  and  the  people 
who  had  climbed  to  the  sky  were  forced  to  re- 
main there.  Crystals  were  implanted  in  their 
bodies,  and  the  flashing  of  these  by  night  causes 
the  light  of  stars.  Some  medicine-men  have  still  the 
power  of  ascending  to  the  skies  to  speak  to  the 
star-people.^ 

Of  these  myths,  some  relate  how  men  first  came 
"trailing  clouds  of  glory"  to  earth  from  the  skies. 
Conversely,  among  myths  which  tell  how  men  reached 
the  surface  of  the  earth  from  below,  it  is  sometimes 
said  that  the  ascent  was  made  by  means  of  a  tree. 
The  Tusayans  of  North  America  think  that  all  men 
once  lived  in  the  lowest  depths  of  the  earth,  suffering 
misery.  Through  the  intervention  of  Myuingwa,  the 
god  of  the  interior,  and  Baholikinga,  a  huge  serpent, 
genius  of  the  water,  they  obtained  a  seed  from  which 
sprang  a  magic  growth  of  cane.  It  penetrated 
through  a  crevice  in  the  roof,  and  by  its  means  men 
reached  a  higher  plane  of  the  earth's  interior.  Here  a 
dim  light  prevailed,  and  vegetation  was  produced. 
By  another  magic  seed  they  climbed  to  the  next  stage, 
where  the  light  was  strong,  and  the  animals  came  into 
being.     Lastly,  the  ascent  to  the  surface  was  made  by 

1  Brett,   pp.  55,   179.     Spencer  and  Gillen,  Northern   Tribes,  p. 
628. 


THE  ABODE  OF  THE  GODS  447 

similar  mag"ic  growths  (in  other  versions  of  the  myth, 
by  a  pine-tree,  or  by  a  rush),  and  the  people  were 
headed  by  two  mythic  twins,  who  sang*  as  the  people 
came  up.  When  their  song-  was  ended  no  others  were 
allowed  to  ascend,  and  they  still  remain  below.  But 
through  the  outlet  still  come  the  germs  of  all  livingf 
things.  In  another  Red  Indian  myth,  the  ascent  to 
the  surface  of  the  earth  was  made  by  means  of  a  tree, 
which  broke  when  the  inevitable  fat  man  was  climbing 
it,  causing  many  still  below  to  remain  there. ^  The 
magic  seed  in  the  Tusayan  myth  is  the  closest 
parallel  to  Jack's  bean  we  have  met  with. 

The  destruction  of  the  means  of  ascent  or  descent 
occurs  with  great  persistence  in  these  tales  and 
myths ;  it  was  clearly  suggested  by  the  evident 
impossibility  of  man's  now  reaching  the  sky,  while  it 
was  easy  to  imagine  that  it  was  caused  by  some 
unlucky  or  unwieldy  individual.  But  the  region 
which  was  thus  left  usually  becomes  the  paradise  to 
which  men  hope  to  go  after  death,  as  in  the  second 
Red  Indian  myth. 

Sometimes  the  upper  region,  as  in  the  European 
variants  of  Jack  and  the  Beanstalk,  as  well  as  in  the 
Dyak,  Australian,  Samoan,  Maori,  Malay,  Arawak, 
and  other  myths,  is  the  abode  of  supernatural  beings 
or  of  the  gods.  Sometimes  they  welcome  the  visitor, 
and  send  him  back  with  gifts  ;  in  other  cases  he  is 
clearly  an  intruder,  stealing  their  possessions,  or  where 
he  remains  among  them  he  must  become  as  they,  and 
share  their  divine  nature.  When  this  occurs,  the 
myth  has  been  influenced  by  the  widely-spread  belief 
that  the  gods  are  jealous  lest  men  enter  their  abode, 
and  share  their  immortality  or  their  possessions — 
jealous,   even,   of   men's   prosperity.      We  find  this 

1  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  Report^  1886-87,  p.  16.  The  outlet  is  still 
symbolised  in  the  construction  of  the  Tusayan  Kiva,  in  the  designs 
on  sand  altars,  and  by  the  unconnected  circle  painted  on  pottery,  etc. 
For  the  other  myth,  see  Knortz,  Aus  dem  Wigwain^  p.  130. 


448  JACK  AND  THE  BEANSTALK 

among  the  Babylonians,  Egyptians,  Greeks,  Hindus, 
Dyaks,  and  Negroes.  The  Egyptian  myth  has 
points  of  contact  with  those  already  studied :  the 
gods  had  formerly  lived  with  men  on  earth,  but  being 
angry  with  them,  had  withdrawn  to  the  sky.  Still 
closer  is  the  Negro  belief  that  gods  and  men  had 
constant  intercourse  by  means  of  a  ladder  reaching 
to  the  sky,  which  the  gods  ultimately  threw  down.^ 

We  have  traced  the  popular  story  of  Jack  and  the 
Beanstalk  to  man's  early  myth-making  fancy,  his 
guesses  at  the  origin  of  things,  as  to  the  region 
beyond  the  sky  and  the  method  of  reaching  it. 
We  have  found  a  folk-tale  of  "Aryan"  peoples 
current  among  very  un-Aryan  races,  and  connected 
with  myths  from  all  parts  of  the  world.  But  we  have 
nowhere  seen  any  reason  to  suppose,  with  De 
Gubernatis,  that  Jack  and  his  beanstalk  are  really 
the  moon  in  another  guise,  because  the  moon,  like 
them,  mounts  the  heavens  and  descends  to  earth 
again. ^  Here,  indeed,  is  a  moon-struck  fancy  of  a 
mythologist. 

On  the  whole.  Jack  and  the  Beanstalk  with  its 
many  versions  is  an  excellent  example  of  how  a  myth 
or  a  saga  may  become  a  folk-tale.  Or,  perhaps,  it 
would  be  better  to  say  that  out  of  more  or  less 
amorphous  stories  told  to  account  for  the  nature  of 
things,  both  myths  and  folk-tales  have  been  evolved. 

^  Cf.  Jastrow,  Rel.  of  Babylonians^  p.  544  seq.\  Maspero,  xlix.  ; 
Odyssey^  iv.  181,  xxiii.  207  (in  Greek  opinion  excess  of  prosperity  was 
evil,  as  it  awakened  the  jealousy  of  the  gods) ;  St  John,  i.  171  ;  Lyell, 
Asiatic  Studies^  2nd  ser.,  p.  246.  See  also  the  Maori  instance  on 
p.  63  supra, 

2  Mitologica  Vedica^  p.  96.  It  should  be  noticed  that  man's 
preconceptions  of  the  universe  often  affect  his  dreams.  So  Jacob  saw 
in  his  dream  a  ladder  reaching  from  earth  to  heaven,  and  St  Perpetua, 
the  North  African  martyr  of  the  third  century,  had  a  vision  of  a 
narrow  golden  ladder  connecting  earth  and  sky,  and  guarded  by 
weapons  and  a  fierce  dragon.  She  safely  mounted  it,  and  reached 
a  beautiful  world  above  the  clouds. — Migne  Patrol.  Eccl.  Lat, 
iii.  38. 


DISEASE  OF  LANGUAGE  449 

No  "disease  of  languagfe"  is  necessary  to  account  for 
the  existence  of  such  tales,  the  near  relations  of 
myths ;  they  were  evolved  by  a  natural  process,  and 
all  alike  are  due  to  man's  healthy  imagination,  not  to 
the  pathology  of  philological  processes ! 


2  F 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THE   ORIGIN   AND   TRANSMISSION   OF   FOLK-TALES 

Folk-tales,   apart    from  stories  known  as   Drolls, 

Beast- Fables,   etc.,   may  be  classed  as   Sagas  and 

Mdrchen.      In    the    saga,   incidents    are    related  of 

'  supernatural    personages,    of  heroes    and    heroines, 

\  who  have  definite  names  and  are  believed  to  have 

once  actually  existed,  while  they  are  also  attached 

to  definite  places.     The  saga  thus  is  to  a  large  extent 

equivalent  to  the  myth.     In  the  Mdrchen  all  is  vague, 

impersonal,  indefinite;  for,  as  M.   Dozon  says,  ''the 

absence  of  names  is  one  of  the  characteristics  of 

true  popular  tales."     Most  countries  have  both  kinds 

of  folk-tale ;  among  savages  tales  are  mainly  of  the 

saga  order,  though  the  stories  of  such  races  as  the 

Kafirs  and  Ainos,  as  well  as  some  North  American 

^  tales,  are  Mdrchen  pure  and  simple ;  while  what  is 

told  as  a  saga  in  one  country  occurs  as  a  Mdrchen  in 

/  another  place.     Possibly  Mdrchen  are  the  deteriorated 

I  form  of  sagas  ;  on  the  other  hand,  a  saga  may  merely 

'    be  a  Mdrchen  to  the  personages  of  which  definite 

names    have    been    given.      Hence,   we  can  hardly 

affirm  yet  which  is  the  earlier  of  the  two ;   nor  is 

there  any  good  reason  for  supposing  that  both  forms 

of  the  folk-tale  may  not  have  been  invented  separately. 

/  But,  judging  by  most  collections  of  savage  folk-tales, 

/  the  earliest  stories  must  have  had  more  or  less  of  the 

V^aga  form,  more  especially  if  we  consider  saga  and 

450 


SAGA  AND  MARCHEN  451 

myth  to  be  closely  related.  We  have  seen  how  many 
European  folk-tale  incidents  exist  as  separate  stories 
amongf  savag"es,  but  told  of  this  or  the  other  tradi- 
tional personage.  These  are  sagfas  or  myths.  They 
may,  however,  be  told  occasionally  of  no  one  in 
particular  ;  then  they  are  savage  Metre  ken.  Moreover, 
where  a  more  or  less  elaborate  story  told  by  savages 
can  be  proved  to  have  reached  them  by  diffusion  or 
borrowing,  almost  invariably  the  actors  in  it  have 
become  the  well-known  heroes  or  divinities  of  the  tribe. 
In  other  words,  a  story  told  in  Europe  as  a  M'drchen 
becomes  a  saga  when  it  is  adopted  by  savages. 

Thus  in  their  origin  folk-tales  may  have  had  some 
other  purpose  than  mere  amusement ;  they  may  have 
embodied  the  traditions,  histories,  beliefs,  ideas,  and 
customs  of  men  at  an  early  stage  of  civilisation.  It 
was  only  later  that  they  became  mere  stories  told 
to  amuse,  or  delight,  or  terrify  an  entranced  audience. 
Even  savage  tales  of  the  Mdrehen  type,  or  tales  which 
are  variants  of  existing  European  stories,  frequently 
have  a  mythical  ending.  All  that  has  been  related 
turns  out  to  be  the  mythic  explanation  of  certain 
natural  phenomena,  or  of  various  animal  peculiarities 
— markings,  shape,  etc.,  and  the  story  concludes  by 
saying,  ''and  that  is  why  such  and  such  an  animal 
has  red  feathers,"  or  *'why  two  animals  always  fight 
when  they  meet,"  etc.  Examples  of  this  have  already 
been  noted  in  citing  savage  folk- tales.  Even  in 
collections  of  European  tales  instances  of  this  are  not 
unknown.  Thus  in  a  Russian  story  the  fox  and  the 
hare  go  to  get  the  Water  of  Life,  which,  as  usual,  lies 
between  mountains  which  for  ever  swing  apart  and 
then  clash  together.  The  fox  gets  off  safely,  but  the 
hare  is  too  late  to  clear  the  clashing  rocks,  and  her  tail 
is  jammed  between  them.  Hence,  hares  have  now  no 
tails.  \ 

^  Ralston,  p.  236.  Cf.  a  Servian  story  explaining  why  the  sole  of 
the  foot  is  uneven. — Naake,  p.  6. 


452  ORIGIN  AND  TRANSMISSION  OF  FOLK-TALES 

In  this  sense,  as  indeed  we  have  seen  already  in 
discussing"  Jack  and  the  Beanstalk,  folk-tales  have  a 
vital  connection  with  myth  and  saga,  though  the 
connection  is  far  from  that  insisted  on  by  Max 
Miiller  and  the  mythological  school.  Still  another 
link  of  connection  may  be  perceived  in  many 
European  Metre  ken,  where  the  gods  and  mythic 
figures  of  an  earlier  faith  have  been  metamorphosed 
into  ogres,  witches,  and  fairies,  and  where  the  dimly- 
remembered  customs  of  that  earlier  religion  have 
supplied  incidents  for  the  story  inventor  of  a  later 
age. 

As  we  have  seen,  all  folk-tale  incidents  are  directly 
connected  with  man's  early  ideas,  beliefs,  and 
customs.  These  gave  rise  to  short  narratives  which 
we  might  call  story  germs.  Most  of  those  became 
more  elaborate  sagas  or  myths  ;  but  some  may  have 
taken  the  form  of  genuine  M'drehen  even  thus  early. 
Sometimes  a  myth  or  saga  may  have  retained  its 
form,  sometimes  it  may  have  been  transmuted,  as  we 
have  shown,  into  a  M'drehen.  And,  again,  where  a 
mythological  or  epic  cycle,  or  even  a  sacred  book, 
was  being  elaborated,  floating  M'drehen,  native  or 
borrowed,  were  occasionally  incorporated,  divinities 
or  well-known  heroes  becoming  the  dramatis  personce. 

Our  study  of  folk-tales  and  the  theory  advanced  as 
to  the  origin  of  folk-tale  incidents,  help  to  throw  some 
light  on  the  problem  of  their  diffusion.  The  various 
solutions  of  that  problem  with  which  the  theory  of  the 
mythological  school  has  been  met  err  in  narrowing 
the  locality  of  the  centre  of  diffusion,  i.e.,  the  East,  or 
less  vaguely,  India.  Benfey,  in  his  famous  Introduc- 
tion to  the  Panehatantra,  held  that  tales  reached  the 
South  of  Europe  via  the  Turks,  and  arrived  in  the 
North  via  the  Mongols,  who  passed  them  on  to  the 
Slavs,  from  whom  the  Germanic  peoples  received 
them.  All  this  happened  within  historic  times,  and 
the  stories  themselves  had  a  Buddhist  origin.     But 


INDIAN  ORIGIN  OF  FOLK-TALES  453 

while  it  is  true  that  Eastern  literary  collections  of 
tales,  or  individual  legends  like  that  of  Barlaam  and 
Josaphat,  may  be  traced  step  by  step  from  India  to 
Europe,  it  is  not  necessarily  true  that  all  European 
tales  which  resemble  them  were  derived  from  those 
literary  stories.  Such  tales  had  been  told  in  Europe 
before  they  arrived  in  a  literary  form  from  the  East, 
just  as  they  existed  orally  in  India  before  a  literary 
form  was  given  them.  Later  investigators,  like 
Cosquin,  widened  the  Indian  theory  by  admitting  the 
existence  of  tales  in  India  in  pre- Buddhistic  times, 
and  by  postulating  a  continuous  oral  transmission  to 
Europe  from  early  ages.  But  the  Indian  parallels  to 
European  tales  in  M.  Cosquin's  collection  and  else- 
where are  both  few  and  incomplete,  nor  can  we  be 
satisfied,  from  their  form,  that  they  were  the  source 
of  our  European  variants.  Cosquin's  admirable 
volumes  seldom  show,  as  they  ought  to  do  if  his 
theory  is  correct,  a  complete  Indian  version  of  each  of 
his  Lorraine  tales  of  which  he  cites  so  many  variants 
from  all  countries.  There  are  only  six  complete 
Indian  parallels  in  his  first  volume  ;  others  have  only 
a  partial  likeness  ;  of  many  there  is  no  Indian  variant. 
Indeed,  his  work  might  be  used  to  prove  that  stories 
reached  India  from  some  European  country  —  say 
Lorraine!  Nor,  as  the  theory  demands,  are  the 
incidents  of  these  tales  such  as  would  exclusively 
belong  to  Indian  soil.  Transformation,  e.^.,  is  said  to 
be  borrowed  from  the  Indian  belief  in  transmigration. 
But,  as  we  have  seen,  every  people  under  heaven 
believe  or  have  believed  that  shape-shifting  is  possible. 
Nor  are  helpful  animals  or  beast-marriages  exclu- 
sively Indian  conceptions,  unless  indeed  Ainos  and 
Australians,  Negroes  and  Polynesians,  have  all 
borrowed  them  from  India!  These  and  all  such 
incidents  are  the  common  property  of  the  human  race, 
and  this  alone  is  sufficient  to  invalidate  the  Indian 
hypothesis.     On  the  other  hand  it  is  suggested  that, 


4:U  ORIGIN  AND  TRANSMISSION  OF  FOLK-TALES 

while  the  incidents  may  be  universal,  the  use  of  them 
for  folk-tale  purposes,  in  other  words  the  formation  of 
the  folk-tales  themselves  with  their  elaborate  plot  and 
numerous  details,  is  Indian.  But,  as  I  have  said, 
Indian  parallels  to  existing-  European  tales  are  few 
and  incomplete,  while  Mr  Hartland  points  out  that 
the  Indian  version  of  any  given  tale  is  seldom  the 
most  artistic.  Again,  even  M.  Cosquin  finds  a  diffi- 
culty, by  the  discovery  of  folk-tales  in  ancient  Egypt 
{e.£'.,  The  Two  Brothers),  with  Eastern  and  Western 
parallels,  and  is  driven  to  suggest  that  Hindu  tales 
were  borrowed  from  non-Aryan  peoples,  and  then 
transmitted  westwards.  Yet,  if  Egyptians  and  other 
non-Aryan  races  had  tales  at  such  an  early  date, 
there  is  nothing  to  hinder  us  from  supposing  that 
stories  existed  in  Europe  and  India  simultaneously, 
or  that  even  if  stories  filtered  westwards  they  also 
went  eastwards  as  well.  In  fact,  we  are  more  and 
more  driven  to  the  conclusion  that  tkere  never  has 
been  any  one  centre  for  story  invention^  but  that  there 
were  many  centres,  and  that  diffusion  by  borrowing 
or  transmission  has  gone  on  steadily  from  prehistoric 
times.  This  does  not,  however,  exclude  the  possi- 
bility that  stories  with  similar  incidents,  even  similar 
sequence  of  incidents,  may  not  have  been  invented 
independently  in  different  quarters.-^ 

The  various  story  cycles  which  we  have  examined 
have  revealed  two  facts,  (i)^that  the  incidents  of  these 
tales  are  exceedingly  primitive,  and  (2)  that,  though 
only  in  a  few  cases  can  exact  savage  variants  of 
elaborately  detailed  cycles  be  produced,  most  of  the 
details  of  these  stories  can  be  paralleled  in  abundance 

'  Another  Eastern  theory  is  that  of  Dr  Gaster,  who  derives  folk; 
tales  from  the  old  Slavonic  religious  literature,  which,  in  turn,  was 
based  upon  Eastern  origins.  This  theory,  ingenious  as  it  is,  and 
postulating  the  non-existence  of  tales  in  Europe  before  the  tenth 
century,  is  open  to  the  same  objections  as  the  others.  Cf.  his  Ilchester 
Lectures  on  Greco- Slavonic  Literature. 


THE  WERWOLF  SUPERSTITION  um     455 

from  separate  short  tales  existing-  among-  savages. 
Elaborate  stories,  with  a  wealth  of  detail  and  incident 
and  a  comparatively  complicated  plot,  are  not  want- 
ing- in  any  savage  collection  of  tales,  as  Theal's,  or 
Cushing's,  or  Grinnell's,  or  Romilly's  books  will  show, 
for  Kafirs,  Zunis,  Pawnees,  and  the  people  of  New 
Guinea.  But  on  the  whole  the  conclusion  to  which 
we  are  driven  after  a  wide  survey  of  tales  is  that  the 
incidents  of  folk-tales,  those  of  helpful  animals,  trans- 
formation, beast-marriage,  sacrifice,  etc.,  were  once 
separate  stories,  and  represent  the  earliest  form  of  the 
folk-tale.  The  foregoing  chapters  have  supplied 
abundant  illustrations  of  this.  But  as  these  incidents 
are  based  on  world-wide  belief  and  custom,  we  may 
suppose  that  they,  as  stories,  were  invented  separately, 
and  were  not  necessarily  borrowed  by  one  people  from 
another,  or  diffused  from  a  common  centre.  For 
example,  if  all  men  believe  that  shape-shifting  is 
possible,  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  the  most 
widely  separated  peoples  could  not  invent  little  stories 
about  shape-shifting,  without  help  from  each  other^) 
Again,  to  the  similarity  of  man's  myth-making  fancy 
in  all  ages  and  places  may  be  attributed  the  remark- 
able likeness  which  prevails  in  savage  "  Swallow"  and 
''Jack  and  the  Beanstalk"  stories  froi3;i  the  most 
widely-separated  regions  of  the  globe.  Simple  tales 
were  evolved  everywhere  much  in  the  same  way. 
This  is  also  true  of  all  beliefs  and  customs  which  have 
a  universal  existence.  But  confining-  ourselves  to 
shape-shifting  we  find  that  the  particular  form  of  the 
idea  which  is  contained  in  the  werwolf  superstition, 
viz.,  that  a  man  or  woman  may  take  animal  form 
and,  if  wounded  in  that  form,  will  be  found,  on 
resumption  of  the  human  shape,  to  have  a  wound 
on  the  limb  corresponding  to  that  which  was  hurt, 
can  be  traced  in  such  widely-separated  regions  as  to 
preclude  the  possibility  of  borrowing  or  transmission. 
It  is  found  all  over   Europe,   among   the    Malays, 


456  ORIGIN  AND  TRANSMISSION  OF  FOLK-TALES 

among  the  Indians  of  South  America,  in  Melanesia, 
and  elsewhere,  and  thus  forms  an  excellent  example 
of  a  universal  belief  being  worked  up  into  a  super- 
stition or  story  bearing  a  common  likeness  in  different 
regions,  the  only  difference  being  that  due  to  local 
colouring  (in  Europe  the  creature  is  a  wolf  or  bear, 
in  Malaysia  a  tiger,  in  South  America  a  jaguar).^ 
So  it  is  quite  conceivable  that  a  spider's  web  may 
have  more  than  once  suggested  the  idea  of  weaving  a 
net.  At  all  events  we  find  in  West  Africa  a  folk-tale, 
and  in  North  America  an  Algonquin  saga,  telling  how 
the  hero  in  each  case  learned  the  art  of  making  hunt- 
ing and  fishing  nets  from  a  spider  and  her  web.'^ 
Here  it  is  safe  to  say  the  stories  have  been  invented 
quite  independently.  ;  It  is,  in  fact,  inevitable  that 
man's  psychic  life  being  everywhere  one  and  the 
same,  similar  conditions,  social,  geographical,  etc.,  will 
inevitably  produce  similar  ideas,  beliefs,  and  stories. 
For  the  same  reason  archaeologists  infer  that  the 
stone  weapons  of  a  primitive  culture  found  in  all  parts 
of  the  world,  like  as  they  are  to  each  other,  may  quite 
well  have  been  invented  independently  by  different 
peoples.  For  precisely  the  same  reason  the  develop- 
ment and  details  of  culture  have  everywhere  been 
carried  out  on  the  same  lines,  while  man's  ideas  about 
sacrifice,  ancestor  or  nature  worship,  magic,  and  the 
like,  have  everywhere  a  common  likeness.  Diffusion 
of  ideas,  copying,  borrowing,  doubtless  went  on,  but 

1  Cf,  Keane,  Ma7i :  Past  and  Present^  pp.  239,  380.  In  Melanesia 
the  story  is  told  of  a  "  talamaur,"  the  soul  of  a  person  which  leaves  the 
body  to  eat  a  corpse.  A  woman  said  she  would  send  her  soul  to  eat 
a  certain  dead  man.  Strict  watch  was  kept  in  the  darkness ;  a 
rustling  was  heard  near  the  corpse  ;  the  watchers  threw  a  stone 
and  hit  something.  Next  day  the  woman  was  found  to  have  a  bruise 
on  her  arm  caused  by  the  stone  which  hit  her  soul.  Codrington, 
p.  222. 

2  For  the  African  tale,  see  Miss  Kingsley's  Travels  in  West 
Africa;  the  American  story  is  in  Brinton,  American  Hero  Myths^ 
p.  40. 


PLEISTOCENE  MAN  457 

only  to  an  infinitesimal  extent  as  compared  with  the 
production  of  similar  results  out  of  a  common  ground- 
work of  psychic  life,  surrounding's,  and  needs.  To 
this  point  we  shall  return  later.  Of  course,  it  is  open 
to  anyone  to  argue  that  the  generalised  Pleistocene 
precursors  of  the  great  divisions  of  the  human  race, 
before  setting  out  on  their  migrations,  had  evolved 
story-germs,  ideas,  beliefs,  customs,  and  carried  these 
with  them  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  Hence  the 
amazing  likeness  of  such  things  from  the  most  widely 
separated  regions.  This  is  omne  ig-notmn  pro  miri- 
fico  with  a  vengeance,  and  until  we  know  more  of  the 
mental  equipment  of  Pleistocene  man,  the  reasoning  is 
ineffective. 

^The  earliest  folk-tales  were  thus  short,  probably 
confined  to  one  or  two  incidents,  and  everywhere 
presented  the  same  characteristics.^  So  far  the 
problem  is  simple ;  it  becomes  more  complicated  as 
the  stories  become  more  elaborate,  and  yet  present 
variants  and  parallels  from  the  farthest  removed 
quarters.  As  time  went  on,  and  man's  inventive  and 
imaginative  faculties  developed,  these  simple  stories, 
from  being  complete  in  themselves,  became  incidents 
in  longer  tales.  New  episodes  were  invented ;  the 
growth  of  custom  and  belief  would  furnish  ever 
new  material;  while  existing  stories  would  lend 
themselves  to  new  combinations  in  kaleidoscopic 
fashion.  Again,  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that 
this  process  went  on  everywhere  on  similar  lines,  or 
that  the  same  combination  of  incidents,  the  same 
elaboration  of  the  tale,  occurred  in  more  places  than 
one. 

Let  us  here  glance  at  our  savage  parallels  to 
European  stories.  The  profusion  of  savage  parallels 
to  the  incidents  of  elaborate  '*  civilised  story  cycles 
has  already  been  referred  to,  and  independent  inven- 

1  Cf.  the  exact  similarity  of  savage  beast-marriage  and  cannibal- 
istic tales  everywhere. 


458  ORIGIN  AND  TRANSMISSION  OF  FOLK-TALES 

tion  claimed  for  them.  But  there  are  a  certain 
number  of  elaborate  savage  parallels  to  the  European 
cycles  themselves,  which  may  be  arranged  into  two 
groups.  In  the  first  of  these  we  have  incomplete 
parallels,  approaching  the  European  versions.  Taking 
these  in  order,  we  note,  e.g,,  the  Fjort  and  Basuto 
variants  of  the  Impostor  cycle ;  the  Basuto,  Negro, 
Hottentot,  Eskimo,  and  Guiana  versions  of  the  girl 
who  tidies  up  a  man's  house  secretly,  and,  being 
discovered,  becomes  his  bride ;  Eskimo  and  Red 
Indian  tales  of  transformation  by  eating ;  Malagasy 
and  Kafir  stories  of  inanimate  objects  personating  a 
fugitive ;  the  Uganda,  Fjort,  Menomini  Indian,  Zuni, 
and  Melanesian  Puss  in  Boots  tales  ;  the  Pawnee  story 
of  the  sorry  nag  which  proves  to  be  a  magic  horse ; 
the  Red  Indian  Cyclops  story  and  numerous  other 
tales  of  cannibalistic  monsters  ;  Samoan  and  Eskimo 
parallels  to  European  stories  of  cannibalism  as  a 
perverted  taste ;  Malagasy,  Basuto,  Melanesian,  and 
Negro  tabu  stories,  in  which  a  husband  loses  his 
wife ;  the  Melanesian  story  of  the  dead  father  helping 
his  despised  son,  as  in  European  Cinderella  tales. 
The  parallelism  is  seldom  complete  over  the  whole 
story,  but  it  is  close  enough.  How  are  we  to  explaiii 
this?  Are  these  merely  inchoate  stories,  evolved 
from  simple  incidental  tales,  which  might  themselves 
in  time  become  complete  parallels  without  outside 
influence?  In  other  words,  have  they  sprung  up, 
like  the  Red  Indian  story  of  Stone-shirt,^  without 
suggestion  from  already  formed  story  cycles  (^.i^., 
European) ;  or,  on  the  other  hand,  has  that  suggestion 
been  at  work ;  or,  finally,  has  there  been  direct 
borrowing,  with  subsequent  loss  of  some  incidents 
and  distortion  of  others?  All  theories  will  fit  the 
case,  and  while  some  of  the  stories  suggest  one  theory, 
others  as  evidently  adapt  themselves  to  another.  We 
know  that  diffusion  of  tales  has  been  possible  over  a 

^  See  p.  23  and  note  i. 


SAV^E^  PARALLELS  459 

large  area  and  during  a  long"  period  of  time ;  but, 
again,  the  uniform  workings  of  the  human  mind  in 
similar  conditions  by  no  means  forbid  our  sup- 
posing that  out  of  similar  independent  story  germs 
everywhere  existing,  the  same  or  nearly  the  same 
more  or  less  detailed  narratives  might  have  been 
formed/ 

In  the  second  group  the  parallelism  to  elaborate 
tales  is  much  more  complete.  Thus  the  savage 
parallels  of  the  Magic  Mirror,  of  the  Dead  Mother,  of 
the  Life  Token  (the  Fjort  version  of  the  Dragon 
cycle),  of  the  Transformation  Flight  (the  Samoan 
tale  of  Siati),  of  the  cumulative  tales  where  inanimate 
objects  talk  (Hottentot,  Berber),  of  the  Friendly 
Animals  in  the  Aladdin  cycle  (Aino,  Korean),  of  the 
Magic  Napkin  and  Cudgel  (Kafir,  Ashanti),  of  the 
Youngest  Son  (Malagasy,  Zuni),  of  the  contrasted 
Kind  and  Unkind,  of  Beauty  and  the  Beast  (Kafir, 
Zuni,  Guiana),  of  the  child  slain  by  her  mother  and 
eaten  by  her  father  (Malagasy),  of  the  Dragon 
Sacrifice  (Kabyle,  Senegambian),  seem  to  point  to 
undoubted  borrowing  and  diffusion.  The  Basuto 
versions  of  the  Cap  o'  Rushes,  of  the  Boy  with  the 
Moon  on  his  Breast,  of  Beauty  and  the  Beast,  of  the 
Dismembered  Restored,  and  of  the  Cannibal  Out- 
witted cycles,  may  also  be  referred  to.  They  have  a 
curious  parallelism  to  European  tales,  with  individual 
differences  of  detail.  Here,  too,  we  may  mention  the 
case  of  Indian,  Swahili,  and  Japanese  versions  of 
the  Separable  Soul  story,  in  which  a  monkey's 
heart  is  involved,  without  European  parallels,  so 
far  as  I  know,  as  well  as  the  Aino,  Japanese, 
Chinese,  and  Eskimo  fox  stories,  as  showing  that 
borrowing  may  go  on  among  races  at  a  low  level 
without  the  story  ever  reaching  the  higher  races 
and  becoming  one  of  their  folk- tales.  (Yet,  even 
of  this  second  group  we  cannot  absolutely  bar 
occasional    separate    invention    of  similar    incidents 


460  ORIGIN  AND  TRANSMISSION  OF  FOLK-TALES 

in    a   similar   sequence.^      We    can    only  say,   it  is 
unlikely. 

Or,  let  us  take  the  stories  of  a  single  tribe,  e.g:., 
those  of  the  Menomini  Indians  of  the  Algronquin 
stock.  Some  of  these  are  myths,  and  in  this  group 
we  have  those  which  are  recited  at  the  initiation  of 
candidates  to  the  Mitawit  by  the  shamans,  as  well  as 
others  which  are  not  now  recited  but  are  believed  to 
have  formed  part  of  the  sacred  ritual  long  ago.  All 
alike  form  part  of  a  mythological  cycle  dealing  with  the 
life  of  the  hero-divinity,  Manabush.  Others  are  folk- 
tales ''  recited  by  the  old  Indians  during  the  long  winter 
evenings."  In  both  groups  are  tales  which  are  clearly 
authentic,  as  well  as  tales  of  which,  because  of  their 
likeness,  greater  or  less,  to  European  Marc  ken,  it  is 
impossible  to  assert  anything  with  certainty.  Yet,  in 
accordance  with  our  theory  of  similar  incidents 
everywhere  arising  from  similar  ideas  due  to  a 
common  psychic  life,  some  of  these  tales,  in  spite  of  a 
general  parallelism  to  European  stories,  may  quite 
well  have  been  invented  without  outside  influence.  A 
few  of  the  Menomini  stories  have  been  cited 
throughout  this  volume,  e.g".,  those  of  the  Bear  Chief 
and  the  Three  Brothers,  of  the  Wolf  and  the  Hunter 
(a  Puss  in  Boots  tale),  and  of  the  further  adventures 
of  the  third  brother  with  the  bears  (Transformation 
Flight).^  These  tales  may  quite  well  have  arisen 
independently  from  ideas  current  among  the  Indians, 
who  believe  firmly  in  animals  having  a  chief,  and  in 
the  survival  of  their  spirits,  in  help  given  by  animals 
to  men,  and  in  transformation  and  magic.  On  the 
other  hand,  this  people  has  for  long  been  in  contact 

^  The  similar  sequence  of  incidents  is  to  me  the  crux  of  the 
matter.  A  single  incident,  like  that  of  the  Celtic  and  Melanesian 
stories  of  how  a  loch  or  the  sea  was  formed,  can  be  invented  twice  or 
oftener,  as  this  particular  case  shows. 

2  Cf.  pp.  175,  230,  380.  This  large  group  of  myths  and  Miirchen 
will  be  found  in  the  \ifth  Annual  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology, 
p.  161  seq. 


BALL-CARRIER  461 

with  Europeans,  and  we  have  Mr  Leland's  sugfgfestion 
that  some  Algfonquin  tales  are  derived  from  the  old 
Norse  settlers.  Thus  it  is  possible  that  their  stories 
may  have  been  influenced  by  sugfgfestions  derived  from 
European  tales.  But  even  this  theory  is  not  necessary 
to  account  for  the  parallelism,  and  the  stories  are  now 
so  coloured  by  Indian  ideas  that  it  would  be  difficult 
to  prove  it. 

Borrowing"  is  more  clearly  indicated  in  the  long- 
tale  of  Nanni  Naioqta,  or  Ball-carrier,  part  of  which 
has  already  been  cited.^  As  the  story  now  stands,  it 
bears  every  apparent  mark  of  originality.  It  tells  the 
adventures  of  a  boy  who  was  enticed  from  home  by  a 
witch,  and  only  returned  to  his  parents  after  a  long 
series  of  adventures.  But  in  spite  of  the  Indian 
colouring,  and  the  introduction  of  Indian  beliefs  and 
customs,  a  closer  analysis  of  the  story  sugfgests  that 
several  native  incidental  tales  and  the  incidents  of 
various  European  Marc  ken  have  been  worked  up  into 
a  long  tale.  The  places  of  junction  have  now  and 
then  been  left  obvious,  though  the  ex  hypothesi 
borrowed  incidents  have  frequently  been  modified  to 
exhibit  Indian  beliefs.  The  incidents  of  the  story 
may  be  tabulated  as  follows  : — 

1.  The  boy  enticed  from  home  by  the     Possibly  European.^  Stories 
witch's  ball.  of  witches  occur,   how- 
ever, in  native  folk-lore. 

2.  Treatment  of  the  boy  by  the  witch.         This  is  doubtless  original — 

the  boy  receiving  help 
from  the  Manidos  for 
the  task  she  is  to  set 
him. 

3.  Adventure  with   the  cannibal    ogre,     Qt  Jack  and  the  Beanstalk, 

and  flight  with  his  magic  ladder  and         Mally  Whuppie,  etc. 
gold. 

4.  Marriage   of  the  hero  to   a   woman     Original, 
carved  out  of  a  block  of  wood. 

»  See  p.  286. 

2  In  the  Greek  myth,  Dionysus  is  lured  away  to  his  ruin  with  a 
ball,  top,  mirror,  and  other  articles,  by  the  Titans. 


462  ORIGIN  AND  TRANSMISSION  OF  FOLK-TALES 


5.  Marriage  to  a  woman  whose  sister  is     Original, 
a  cannibal,  and  who  is  killed  by  the 

hero.  Birds  and  beasts  assist  him 
by  their  silence. 

6.  Adventure  with  a  giant,  and  rescue 
of  a  chiefs  daughter,  the  giant's 
victim.  The  hero  draws  the  giant 
up  to  the  window  of  his  cliff-dwelling 
and  cuts  off  his  head  ;  then  resusci- 
tates his  former  victims. 

7.  Duplicate  of  Incident  5,  but  here  the     Original 
cannibal  sister  races  with  the  hero, 

who  wins  the  race  by  transforming 
himself  into  a  succession  of  swiftly- 
flying  birds,  and  then  kills  her. 

8.  Fight  with  a  water-monster  whose 
venom  causes  Ball-carrier's  death. 


General  resemblance  to 
Jack  the  Giant  Killer 
incidents. 


9.  Ball-carrier  is  buried  on  a  scaffold 
among  a  grove  of  trees.  His  ghost 
takes  the  form  of  a  bird,  and  causes 
a  miraculous  supply  of  food  for  his 
wife  and  children. 

10.  Marriage  of  Ball-carrier's  daughter 
to  a  chief,  who,  discovering  the 
miraculous  food  supply,  demands 
that  the  bird  be  killed  to  cure  him 
of  a  pretended  illness. 

11.  Ball-carrier's  sons,  in  anger  at  the 
chief,  eat  the  head  and  heart  of  the 
bird,  flee  from  home,  but  wherever 
they  sleep  find  gold  lying  in  the 
morning,  because  they  have  eaten 
the  bird.     Chagrin  of  the  chief. 

12.  Meanwhile  the  Ball  attached  to  the 
hero's  foot  has  returned  to  the  witch 
on  his  death.  She  sets  out  to  seek 
him,  finds  his  body,  and  restores  him 
to  life.  Then  she  takes  the  giant's 
gold  and  magic  ladder  from  under 
his  armpits,  where  they  had  been 
hidden  all  along,  and  buries  them,  in 
order  that  men  may  find  gold  through 
hard  work,  and  may  learn  to  build 
bridges.  Then  she  sends  Ball-carrier 
home  to  his  parents. 


Possibly  European.  Cf. 
the  Dragon  Combat 
series. 

This  embodies  native  cus- 
tom and  belief,  but  cf. 
European  Cinderella 
tales  of  the  Dead  Mother 
as  an  animal. 

Cf.  European  tales  of  the 
jealous  second  wife  or 
stepmother,  who  causes 
the  death  of  the  trans- 
formed wife  or  children. 

This  is  a  common  incident 
in  Mdrchen^  and  is  doubt- 
less borrowed,  but  has 
received  original  treat- 
ment, viz.,  the  bird  is  the 
boys'  father's  ghost. 

Cf  the  Life-token  incident. 
As  usual,  the  tale  ends 
with  a  mythic  explana- 
tion of  why  gold  is  found 
in  the  earth. 


METHOD  OF  DIFFUSION  46^, 

If  we  are  rig-ht  In  assig'ning'  certain  incidents  of 
this  tale  to  borrowing: — the  third  and  eleventh  are 
almost  certainly  borrowed — it  affords  an  excellent 
example  of  the  manner  in  which  these  are  coloured 
to  suit  native  beliefs,  adapted  to  other  existing-  native 
incidents,  and  the  whole  woven  into  a  complex  tale.^ 
Where  elaborate  myths  or  tales  already  existed,  as 
with  this  tribe,  the  process  of  assimilating  borrowed 
incidents  would  be  comparatively  easy.  But  even 
this  tale  shows  that  certain  incidents  may  only  bear  a 
g-eneral  and  accidental  likeness  to  those  of  European 
M'drchen,  e.g:,  the  ninth,  and  need  not  have  been 
borrowed,  while  the  complete  tale,  as  it  stands,  might 
quite  easily  have  been  diffused  in  time  over  a  wide 
area,  and  have  given  rise  to  many  variants.  We 
shall  now  pass  on  to  consider  how  diffusion  occurred, 
(jj/'herever  there  was  communication  between  race 
and  race,  whether  by  migration,  war  and  consequent 
capture  of  prisoners  and  slavery,  trade,  or  marriage, 
the  stories  of  one  race  were  bound  to  be  communicated 
to  other  races.  The  more  striking  of  these  would  be 
adopted,  and  thus  each  people  would  acquire  a  certain 
number  of  new  stories,  their  own  having  in  the 
meanwhile  been  handed  on  elsewhere.  Thus  these 
more  elaborate  tales  travelled  far  and  wide,  were 
adopted  everywhere,  and  became  common  property — 
each  people,  however,  giving  them  in  time  local 
colouring.  The  process  must  have  gone  on  for  long- 
ages  ;  many  fresh  tales  would  be  invented,  and  they 
too  would  be  disseminated  over  a  wide  region.  In 
the  process  many  stories  must  have  been  lost ;  others 
again  were  forgotten,  and  perished.  Qnly  the  fittest 
to,  survive,  viz.,  those  which  were  most  popular 
because  of  their  appeal  to  the  universal  elements  of 
human  life,  or  on  account  of  their  more  striking- 
imag-inative  qualities,  would  survive.  But  sometimes 
a  story,  popular  with  this  or  the  other  race,  may  have 

^  The  tale  occupies  fourteen  quarto  pages  of  the  Report. 


464  ORIGIN  AND  TRANSMISSION  OF  FOLK-TALE 

failed  to  catch  the  mind  of  other  peoples.  In  some 
such  way  as  this  we  may  account  for  the  existence  of 
story  cycles  and  their  variants.  A  very  popular 
story  will  have  variants  elsewhere ;  a  less  popular 
tale  will  occur  only  here  and  there ;  many  more  may 
have  an  exceedingly  circumscribed  locale. 

To  put  the  case  in  graphic  form,  suppose  there  are 
six  races,  A,  B,  C,  D,  E,  F,  each  of  which  invents  ten 
more  or  less  elaborate  tales.  Three  of  A's  ten  are 
disseminated,  and  reach  B,  C,  D,  E,  F.  They  thus 
become  the  common  property  of  all  alike.  Two  more 
of  A's  are  accepted  by  D  and  F,  but  B,  C,  and  E 
reject  them,  though  they  may  in  turn  borrow  another 
of  A's  ten  which  does  not  appeal  to  D  or  F.  The 
remaining  four  of  A's  stories  may  never  leave  A,  or,  if 
they  (do,  are  speedily  forgotten  elsewhere,  and  thus 
remain  peculiar  to  A.  At  the  same  time  any  of  these 
five  races  may  be  already  in  possession  of  a  story  of 
A's,  or  one  closely  resembling  it,  by  reason  of  that 
unity  of  man's  psychic  life  already  referred  to.  We 
will  then  have  three  story  cycles  with  variants  among 
six  races  ;  two  cycles  with  three  variants  ;  one  cycle  with 
four  variants,  and  four  stories  which  have  no  variants 
outside  A.  In  course  of  time  any  of  these  variants 
may  be  dropped  by  any  given  race,  say,  C  or  E,  and 
then  the  later  twentieth-century  collector  will  look  in 
vain  for  them  in  these  regions.  The  same  process  of 
dissemination  or  rejection  will  be  going  oxv  pari  passu 
with  B,  C,  D,  E,  and  F's  groups  often.  In  this  way 
stories  become  common  property,  receive  local  colour- 
ing, and  in  time  lose  all  trace  of  their  originating 
centre.  On  this  theory  we  are  not  bound  to  admit 
that  all  story  cycles  had  one  and  only  one  centre  of 
origin.  I  see  no  reason  against  the  supposition  that, 
say,  A  invented  Cinderella,  B  Bluebeard,  C  Puss  in 
Boots,  D  Beauty  and  the  Beast,  and  so  on.  When 
first  invented,  each  of  these  stories  may  have  borne 
clear  trace  of  its  birthplace,  but  the, changes  of"  time 


MINGLING  OF  STORY  CYCLES  465 

and  local  colouringf  due  to  dissemination  make  it 
impossible  now  to  discover  it.  Backward  and  isolated 
races  would,  of  course,  have  few  opportunities  of 
hearing  the  stories  of  other  races,  while  they  would 
not  advance  much  beyond  the  simpler  tales  once 
common  to  every  race.  As  Mr  Lang  says,  "  Where 
there  is  no  distinction  of  wealth  and  rank,  there  are 
no  Cinderella  and  Puss  in  Boots  tales."  ^ 

Another  aspect  of  the  problem  now  presents  itself. 
Not  only  does  a  story  with,  say  six  incidents,  occur 
in  several  countries,  but  it  also  presents  itself  in  some 
of  these  and  in  other  countries  lacking-  certain  inci- 
dents, or  with  others  added,  borrowed  occasionally 
from  a  quite  different  story  cycle.  There  is  hardly 
any  story  cycle  of  which  this  may  not  be  pre- 
dicated, and  we  have  had  many  examples  of  it  in 
the  course  of  this  book.  The  central  incidents  are 
frequently  the  most  unvarying ;  the  introductory  and 
final  incidents  differ  more..  The  truth  is,  that  once  a 
popular  story  was  invented  containing  several  in- 
cidents it  would  be  liable  to  constant  modification, 
and  each  of  these  modified  and  altered  forms  might 
be  as  popular  as  the  first,  and  might  conceivably  oust 
it  or  each  other  here  and  there.  There  would  thus 
arise  two  or  three  types  of  a  story  cycle,  with  several 
variants,  and  also  with  lacunce  in  the  variants  in  this 
or  the  other  country.  If  any  given  incident  in  a  story 
cycle  struck  the  imagination,  it  would  have  a  larger 
chance  of  being  introduced  into  other  cycles  already 
complete  in  themselves.  To  take  an  example.  Let 
us  say  that  the  central  incident  of  a  cycle  is  the  search 
for  the  Water  of  Life.  In  this  story  cycle  the  other 
incidents  grouped  round  it  are  these — a  king  with 
three  sons  who  go  to  seek  the  water  for  him ;  the 
youngest  discovers  it,  is  maltreated  by  the  others,  who 
pretend  they  have  discovered  it,  and  get  the  credit,  to 
be  at  last  punished  for  their  crime.     Now,  supposing 

^  Introduction  to  Mrs  Parker's  Australian  Legendary  Tales ^  xv. 

2  G 


466  ORIGIN  AN13  TRANSMISSION  OF  FOLK-TALES 

another  cycle  already  existing  with  the  incident  of  a 
child  promised  to  a  monster,  followed  by  his  Ipkse- 
quent  adventures  ;  another  telling  how  a  hero  escaped 
with  an  ogre's  daughter  who  had  helped  him  in  per- 
forming certain  tasks ;  another  relating  how  a  hero 
forgot  his  bride  and  was  about  to  marry  another,  when 
the  rightful  bride  appeared  and  claimed  him.  EacJPM^ 
these  cycles  might  supply  incidents  which  would  modil^ 
the  first  cycle  while  preserving  its  central  incident^ — 
that  of  the  quest.  Thus  we  might  have  the  promised 
child,  and  his  escape  from  the  monster.  He  wanders 
on,  and  reaches  a  city  where  a  king  is  offering  a  large 
reward  for  the  Water  of  Life,  say,  his  daughter's 
hand.  Off  he  goes  to  seek  it  in  the  kingdom  of  the 
ogre  who  possesses  it.  The  ogre  sets  him  several 
tasks  before  he  will  yield  it  up  ;  the  hero  is  helped  by 
the  ogre's  lovely  daughter,  with  whom  he  straightway 
falls  in  love.  She  brings  him  the  Water  of  Life,  and 
flees  with  him.  He  leaves  her  outside  the  king's  city, 
but  as  soon  as  he  gives  the  king  the  Water  of  Life, 
and  is  presented  with  the  princess  as  his  reward,  he 
forgets  his  true  love,  who,  however,  opportunely 
appears  and  claims  him,  possibly  saving  him  from  a 
shrewish  wife.  This  instance,  not  altogether  imagi- 
nary, shows  how  a  new  type  of  any  given  cycle  might 
be  formed  by  discreet  borrowing  from  other  cycles. 
(The  process  is  the  inevitable  result  of  any  given  cycle 
having  been  built  up  out  of  separate  incidents  which 
were  once  stories  in  themselves. 

The  number  of  incidents  in  folk-tales  is  not  so 
great  as  the  vast  numbers  of  the  tales  themselves 
might  lead  us  to  suppose.  Most  novels  deal  with  the 
way  of  a  man  with  a  maid,  but  how  varied  are  the 
forms  of  this  theme !  So  the  incidents  of  folk-tales 
occur  over  and  over  again,  but  often  in  a  different 
setting.  Thus  the  incident  of  blindness  being  cured 
by  the  Water  of  Life  occurs  in  two  cycles — Truth 
and    Falsehood    and    the    Abandoned    Wife.     The 


FORMATION  OF  NEW  CYCLES  467 

rescue  of  the  maiden  from  a  dragon  is  attached  to  the 
in^^nt  of  a  miraculously-born  hero,  or  to  that  of  the 
Bear's  Son,  while  it  sometimes  occurs  with,  some- 
times without,  the  later  incident  of  the  hero's  death 
and  restoration.  The  tabu  against  opening  a  certain 
door  occurs  as  the  central  episode  of  at  least  four 
^M^es — Bluebeard,  stories  of  the  type  of  the  Russian 
^^oshchei  the  Deathless,  of  the  King  and  the  Wild 
Man,  and  of  the  Traitorous  Sister  or  Wife.  Or  take 
the  Cinderella  group,  and  we  have  Miss  Cox's  verdict 
that  its  incidents  ''are  interchangeable  with  a  large 
proportion  of  the  incidents  of  the  '  Catskin '  and  *  Cap 
o'  Rushes'  stories."^  Again,  the  loss  of  his  posses- 
sions by  a  reckless  man,  careless  of  the  promise  he 
has  made,  occurs  both  in  Puss  in  Boots  and  Cupid 
and  Psyche  tales  from  Africa.  The  cycles  we  have 
examined  afford  many  other  examples,  and  prove  the 
truth  of  M.  Dozon's  words.  ''Sometimes  several 
tales  are  made  out  of  a  single  tale,  sometimes  several 
are  united  in  one.  What  was  an  introductory  becomes 
a  final  incident,  or  the  chief  motif  becomes  a  second- 
ary detail,  and  vice  versa.  Ce  sont  des  veritables 
Chimeres ! "  -  Thus,  in  reading  any  folk-tale  one 
begins  to  have  the  feeling  of  dreaming,  with  its 
bizarre  association  of  ideas.  A  single  incident  recalls 
many  others  which  have  been  encountered  in  connec- 
tion with  it  elsewhere,  and  the  mind,  in  spite  of  itself, 
is  being  perpetually  switched  on  to  new  tracks,  and 
can  scarce  preserve  the  clue. 

But  whenever  a  new  type  of  any  given  cycle  was 
formed  by  a  fresh  combination  of  incidents,  that  new 
type  would  also  be  disseminated  far  and  wide,  and 
take  its  place  along  with  the  first  type  wherever  that 
was  to  be  found.  And  by  new  combinations  fresh 
types  would  be  evolved,  with  variants  in  as  many 
countries  as  they  reached.     Some  of  these  variants 

'  Cinderella^  xxv.  -  Contes  Albanais^  xvi. 


468  ORIGIN  AND  TRANSMISSION  OF  FOLK-TALES 

would  be  lost  in  course  of  time,  and  thus  again  we 
will  have  lacuncB  in  the  variants  as  before. 

That  stories  have  been  disseminated  in  this  way 
by  transmission,  diffusion,  or  borrowing,  may  be 
illustrated  by  actual  proof.  Many  of  the  existing 
Swahili  tales  are  directly  borrowed  from  Arab  and 
Indian  peoples  with  whom  the  Bantu  people  of  that 
region  have  been  for  long  in  contact.-^  The  same  is 
true  of  the  people  of  Uganda,  as  Sir  Harry  Johnston 
has  pointed  out.^  Many  Red  Indian  tales,  strangely 
disguised  though  they  be,  may  yet  be  traced  to  the 
Norse  settlements  in  the  past — Lox,  the  wicked  and 
tricky  hero,  being  the  equivalent  in  name  and  deeds 
of  Loki  in  Scandinavian  mythology,  while  others 
again  have  resulted  from  native  contact  with  the 
French-Canadian  population.^  Spanish  and  Portu- 
guese tales  have  also  been  acclimatised  in  Brazil. 
There  is  also  some  evidence  of  borrowing  in  long 
past  ages  between  Ainos  and  Eskimo,  as  Rink  has 
shown,  and  as  is  amply  suggested  by  a  study  of  their 
respective  folk-tales.*  Lonnrot  asked  a  Finlander 
where  he  had  obtained  so  many  stories.  He  replied 
that  he  had  been  for  years  in  the  service  of  Russian 
and  Norse  fishermen  on  the  coast  of  the  Arctic  Sea, 
and  that  when  the  storms  were  very  bad  they  passed 
the  time  telling  folk-tales  to  each  other.  Those  which 
he  heard  he  told  on  returning  home,  seizing  the 
general  sense,  omitting  what  he  did  not  understand, 
and  adding  bits  from  his  own  stock.^'^  Here  we  see 
an  example  of  the  process  of  dissemination  as  it  has 
doubtless  gone  on  for  long  ages,  while  it  also  shows 
how  variants,  with  their  curious  differences  of  detail 

^  Steere,  Swahili  Tales^  Introduction. 

'^  Uganda  Protectorate^  ii.  700. 

^  See  Leland,  Algonquin  Legends^  and  V^iiiot passim. 

'^  American  Anthropologist^  June  and  July,  1898. 

^  Cosquin,  i.  34.  Cf.  Campbell,  i.  59,  on  the  method  by  which 
Celtic  tales  might  be  diffused  in  our  own  time  by  emigrants  to  the 
farthest  corners  of  the  world. 


BORROWING  OF  TALES  469 

in  spite  of  a  general  likeness,  as  well  as  different  cycle 
types,  may  arise.  Dr  Nassau  says  that  in  West 
Africa  there  are  tales  common  to  all  the  tribes  in  that 
region,  but  that  each  tribe  has  also  its  own  dis- 
tinctive tales,  and  that  it  is  **part  of  native  courtesy 
to  ask  a  visitor  to  contribute  his  local  story  to  the 
amusement  of  the  evening."  In  this  way  isolated 
tales  will  tend  to  become  common  property.  Most  of 
these  stories  are  ancient  and  of  native  origin  ;  some, 
however,  may  have  been  borrowed  in  remote  times 
from  Egypt  as  a  result  of  ethnical  movements. 
In  one  or  two  cases  borrowing  has  been  much  more 
recent.  We  have  seen  this  in  the  case  of  the  story  of 
the  Magic  Mirror ;  there  is  also  a  Negro  version  of 
AH  Baba,  borrowed  from  Arab  sources,  or,  as  Dr 
Nassau  suggests,  itself  a  native  tale  with  incidents  of 
Ali  Baba  overheard  from  some  white  trader  tacked 
on  to  it.  Certainly  the  tale,  while  obviously  due  to 
the  Arab  story,  has  adapted  itself  to  native  manners 
and  customs,  and  has  become  pure  Negro.^  Such  an 
adaptation  to  local  needs  is  once  more  illustrated  by 
Mr  Gushing.  He  told  some  Zunis  the  Italian  cumu- 
lative story  of  the  Cock  and  Mouse.  A  year  after,  a 
rZuni  told  it  to  him,  and  he  found  that  it  had  been 
(  given  a  Zuni  dress,  elaborated  and  lengthened  in- 
ordinately, and  was  full  of  racy  dialogue.  Character- 
I  istically,  too,  of  a  people  in  the  mythopoeic  stage,  the 
'  biting-off  of  the  mouse's  tale  by  the  cock  was  now 
said  to  be  the  reason  why  field-mice  have  a  short  tail, 
while  the  wound  on  the  cock's  head  explained  its  welt 
and  proud  flesh.  There  could  be  no  better  example  of 
the  local  adaptation  and  local  colouring  of  an  existing 

*  Nassau,  pp.  330-1.  The  Ali  Baba  story  will  be  found  on  p.  358 
of  his  volume.  Among  the  Bantu  peoples  of  South  Africa  many 
legends  are  "  tinged  with  European  ideas  to  such  an  extent  that  it  is 
difficult  to  discover  the  original  under  the  more  recent  crust."  Thus 
they  have  seized  upon  the  idea  of  Satan,  and  adapted  him  into  local 
tales  with  extraordinary  ingenuity.  Rev.  J.  Macdonald  in  Folk-Lore^ 
iii.  337. 


470  ORIGIN  AND  TRANSMISSION  OF  FOLK-TALES 

folk-tale.     The  mythical    explanatory    addition    has 
been  already  remarked  on/ 

When  we  have  a  story  cycle  with  many  incidents, 
some  of  them  unique,  the  chances  of  explaining-  its 
occurrence  in  several  lands  by  dissemination  increase 
in  proportion  to  the  number  of  variants  as  well  as  the 
number  of  incidents,  especially  if  these  have  every- 
where the  same  sequence.  On  the  other  hand,  if  a 
story  with  several  incidents  is  found,  say,  only  in  India 
and  among  the  Alg-onquins,  there  would  be  strongf 
presumptive  evidence  of  its  independent  invention  in 
both  these  places.  And,  as  I  have  said,  there  is  no 
reason  why  this  should  not  have  happened  over  and 
over  again,  granting-,  as  we  must,  similarity  of  psychic 
life,  social  conditions,  and  environment.  Examples 
of  independent  invention  may  be  drawn  from  other 
fields  in  addition  to  those  I  have  already  cited.  Both 
Negroes  and  South  American  Botocudoes  disfigure 
their  faces  by  a  lip  ornament.  Here  a  widespread 
custom  of  disfigurement  has  expressed  itself  inde- 
pendently in  the  same  way  among  peoples  so  far 
apart.  The  method  of  cooking  a  hedgehog,  adopted 
by  European  gipsies,  viz.,  by  encasing  the  whole 
animal  in  clay  and  placing  it  in  the  fire,  after  which  it 
is  taken  out  and  the  clay,  to  which  the  skin  adheres, 
is  broken  off,  is  precisely  similar  to  the  plan  adopted 
by  Australian  black  fellows  in  cooking  birds  and 
small  animals.^  So  the  carved  wooden  mortuary 
columns  erected  before  Maori  houses  bear  the 
strongest  resemblance  in  design  and  form  to  the 
totem  posts  of  the  Indians  of  British  Columbia,  yet 
both  have  been  arrived  at  independently.^  Again,  on 
fragments  of  ancient  Mexican  pottery  a  variety  of  the 
classic  frette  ornament  has  been  noted,  ''which,  if 
found  on  any   European  site,  among  fragments  of 

^   Gushing,  p.  410. 

2  RH.  Mathews,/.^./.,  XXV.  257. 

^  Keane,  Man:  Past  and  Present^  p.  379. 


SIMILAR  INDEPENDENT  INVENTION        471 

Samian  ware,  would  be  unhesitatingly  ascribed  to  a 
Roman  origin  " ;  while  ancient  Peruvians  and  Egyp- 
tians as  well  as  the  Chinese  have  alike  fabricated  a 
double  bottle  quite  independently  and  with  considerable 
likeness  of  form.^    The  curious  custom  of  couvade, 
discovered  in  the  most  remote  ages  and  places,  may 
be  due  to  diffusion,  but  it  is  much  more  likely  that  it 
has  been  the  result  of  mental  processes  working  out 
the  problems  of  life  in  precisely  the  same  way  among 
different    peoples.      Its    presence    among    American 
tribes  who,  when  discovered,  had  had  no  intercourse 
with  non- American  races  (among  some  of  whom  it  is 
found,    e.g".,   the   Basques)    since    Pleistocene   times 
certainly  proves  this.     Even  such  an  instance  as  that  of 
the  scenes  from  the  Japanese  Buddhist  purgatory  and 
those  from  the  Aztec  hell  as  described  in  the  Vatican 
codex,  which  are  so  similar,  need  not,  as  Dr  Tylor 
supposes,  be  due  to  the  presence  of  Asiatic  culture  in 
America.'^    As  Mr  Keane  points  out,  the  range  of 
thought  is  limited  to  a  river  of  death,  mountains,  and 
knives.^    These  occur  in  many  religions  as  obstacles] 
which  the  soul  must  pass  through  ;  they  are  the  mera' 
exaggerations  of  actual  dangers  existing  everywhere ; 
and  their  occurrence  in  two  widely  separated  regions  in 
the  same  sequence  is  no  more  than  an  accidental 
coincidence.     But  it  once  more  suggests  that  similar 
conditions  of  life,  similar  environments,  similar  stages 
of  culture,   similar  mental  and  psychic    states,   will 


^  Wilson,  Pre Az'sfofic  Man/ii.  gy,  170.    Ma.rrya.t,  Nisfory  0/ FoUery, 

p.  398. 

2  The  Buddhist  scenes  are — (i)  the  soul  wading  through  a  river  of 
darkness ;  (2)  passing  through  iron  mountains  ;  (3)  climbing  a 
mountain  of  knives  ;  (4)  being  gashed  by  knives  hurled  through  the 
air.  The  Aztec  are — (i)  passing  through  a  river  ;  (2)  passing  between 
two  mountains  which  clash  together  ;  (3)  climbing  a  mountain  set 
with  obsidian  knives  ;  (4)  beset  by  these  knives  blown  about  by  the 
winds.  See  Dr  Tylor,  in  Report  of  Brit.  Ass.  Meeting  at  Oxford, 
1894. 

^  Ethnology,  p.  218. 


472  ORIGIN  AND  TRANSMISSION  OF  FOLK-TALES 

almost  inevitably  work  out  mental,  artistic,  and 
mechanical  products  in  precisely  the  same  way.  ^  The 
occurrence  of  such  a  similar  sequence,  however,  shows 
us  that  the  separate  incidents  of  folk-tale  may  have 
been  actually  combined  in  exactly  the  same  way  more 
than  once,  and  in  different  regions,  even  if  we  cannot 
always  lay  our  finger  on  what  are  cases  in  point. 

On  the  whole,  however,  the  existence  of  similar 
variants  of  elaborate  story  cycles  in  widely  separated 
districts,  especially  where  these  contain,  always  in 
the  same  relative  position  to  the  other  incidents,  some 
one  incident  which  can  hardly  have  been  twice 
invented,  or  if  so,  hardly  placed  twice  independently 
in  that  relative  position,  is  most  easily  explained  as 
we  have  done  it,  by  diffusion  from  different  centres 
through  long  periods  of  time,  probably  from  pre- 
historic ages  onwards.  Here,  again,  the  possibility 
of  dissemination  may  be  illustrated  from  other  fields. 
(  The  presence  of  jade  axes  in  prehistoric  graves  far 
removed  from  the  districts  where  jade  is  found, 
proves  how  articles  could  be  carried  far  and  wide  at 
an  exceedingly  remote  period,  and  the  same  is  true  of 
Chinese  ware  found  in  old  Egyptian  tombs.  The 
diffusion  of  the  bronze  culture  all  over  Europe  and 
Asia  from  the  -^gean  centre  within  a  comparatively 
limited  space  of  time,  is  another  case  in  point.  If 
traffic  in  material  products  was  possible  then, 
exchange  of  intellectual  and  imaginative  products 
was  equally  possible,  and  one  people  could  easily 
pass  on  a  tale,  a  belief,  a  custom,  to  another.  What 
we  now  know  of  the  migration  of  peoples  in  long 
past  ages,  and  their  union  in  distant  lands  with  those 
who  had  already  become  possessed  of  the  soil,  makes 
the  process  of  diffusion  certain.  The  presence  of  a 
Malay  element  in  Madagascar  shows  how,  in  spite  of 
a  wide  intervening  ocean,  Malaysian  settlers  travelled 
there  in  long  past  ages.  So,  too,  the  presence  of 
a  Caucasic  element  in  the  eastern  limits  of  Asia  and 


PROVERBS  AND  CHARMS  473 

in  Polynesia  from  prehistoric  times  is  now  recognised, 
while  it  is  equally  certain  that  the  cradle  of  the 
Caucasic  race  itself  was  North  Africa.  Thus  peoples 
have  spread  to  the  ends  of  the  earth  in  the  dark 
backward  of  things,  carrying-  customs,  and  ideas,  and 
stories  with  them,  while  the  later  contact  of  races, 
in  the  manner  already  described,  has  also  made 
diffusion  and  borrowing  possible. 

The  diffusion  of  folk-tales  might  be  illustrated  by 
the  diffusion  of  other  products  of  man's  psychic 
existence,  which  have  easily  passed  over  from  one 
people  to  another,  (i)  Thus  what  is  true  of  folk- 
tales is  also  true  of  proverbs  and  of  magical  charms. 
Among  primitive  peoples  everywhere  a  proverb  is  an 
end  of  controversy,  and  the  number  of  proverbs 
existing  with  any  one  people  is  enormous.  Many 
of  these  are  doubtless  of  independent  invention ; 
many  more,  though  often  coloured  with  the  indi- 
viduality of  the  people  who  use  them,  are  so  unique 
in  form  and,  in  spite  of  this,  are  found  in  so  many 
regions,  that  they  must  have  passed  from  mouth  to 
mouth,  and  from  country  to  country.^  The  peculiar 
form  of  many  magical  charms,  their  rhythm,  their 
reiterated  appeals,  in  all  of  which  there  is  a  close 
resemblance  in  different  lands,  show  that  they  too 
have  at  some  very  early  period  been  diffused  all  over 
the  world,  especially  when  this  likeness  occurs  in  the 
very  words  and  phrases  used.  In  the  childhood  of 
the  race,  magic  had  immense  power  over  men's  minds, 
and  the  very  potency  of  a  charm  used  by  one  people 
would  cause  it,  when  heard  of,  to  be  at  once  adopted 
by  another.  Certainly  the  close  identity  of  Celtic, 
Etruscan,  and  ancient  Babylonian  magical  spells 
cannot  be  wholly  accidental.'^ 

^  See  Farrer,  Primitive  Manners^  p.  78. 

'^  Cf.  the  Etruscan  spells  given  by  Leland,  E.R.R.,  and  those  in 
Lenormant's  Magie  Chaldiene^  and  the  charms  in  Carmichael's 
Carmina  Gadelica  with  both. 


474  ORIGIN  AND  TRANSMISSION  OF  FOI.K-TALES 

(2)  Over  a  somewhat  more  restricted  field,  ballads 
or  folk-song-s  present  a  close  analogy  to  folk-tales. 
Not  only  are  many  of  their  incidents  and  themes 
identical  in  different  European  countries,  not  only 
does  the  likeness  extend  to  phrases  or  whole  verses, 
but  variants  of  the  same  ballad  frequently  occur, 
e.g:.,  in  Scotland,  Eng-land,^_Scandinavia,  Finland, 
Russia,  Greece,  and  Spain.  (They  are  in  verse  what 
folk-tales  are  in  prose.  They  have  arisen  in  much 
the  same  way,  indeed  as  we  shall  see,  it  is  sometimes 
claimed  that  folk-tales  have  sprung-  from  them.  They 
have  been  borrowed  by  one  people  from  another ; 
diffused  by  wandering-  minstrels,  by  slaves  or  women  ; 
carried  far  and  wide,  everywhere  taking-  a  local 
colouring,  and  seldom  revealing-  any  trace  of  their 
birthplace.  Their  themes,  too,  are  not  infrequently 
those  of  the  folk-tale  —  transformation,  visits  to 
fairyland,  or,  as  in  The  Twa  Sisters,  murder  is 
revealed  by  the  harp-string-s  made  from  the  victim's 
hair. 

(3)  Few  things  have  more  vitality  than  relig-ipus 
symbols,  which,  like  the  Christian  Cross,  convey  a 
wealth  of  meaning-  to  those  who  are  in  the  secret. 
Their  power  to  spread  far  and  wide  is  also  most 
marked,  while  wherever  the  conditions  of  relig-ious 
belief  are  similar,  their  adaptability  by  various  races 
is  g-reat.  The  fylfot  or  svastika,  which  is  most  easily 
explained  now  as  a  symbol  of  the  solar  disc,  occurs 
over  a  wide  area,  but  there  is  little  doubt  that  it 
spread  outwards  from  a  common  centre,  and  was 
everywhere  adopted  as  a  symbol  of  what  was 
universally  worshipped  very  much  in  the  same  way. 
In  this  case,  however,  unlike  proverbs,  ballads, 
charms,  or  folk-tales,  it  is  almost  possible  to  point 
to  the  centre  of  diffusion,  viz.,  Troas  and  Mycenae. 
Thence,  it  reached  the  east,  and  ultimately  India, 
China,  and  Japan ;  thence,  too,  it  was  carried  to 
Greece  and    Asia    Minor,    and    to    North    Africa ; 


DIFFUSION  OF  FOLK-TALES  475 

thence,  lastly,   to   Etruria,   Gaul,   Scandinavia,  and 
Germany.^ 

By  analogy,  then,  we  see  how  folk-tales  may  have 
been  carried  far  and  wide.  But,  agrain,  the  migration 
and  consequent  mingling"  of  peoples  from  early  times, 
the  existence  of  what  we  may  call  ''trade-routes"  in 
the  remote  past,  the  carrying  of  slaves  and  prisoners 
of  war  to  lands  far  removed  from  their  homes,  the 
frequent  marrying  of  women  of  another  stock  accord- 
ing to  the  law  of  exogamy,  the  drifting  of  castaways 
to  unknown  shores^ — all  these  have  helped  the 
diffusion  of  tales  as  well  as  those  other  products  of 
man's  psychic  existence  during  the  long  ages  in  which 
he  has  existed  on  the  earth.  The  presence  of 
irrational  incidents  in  folk-tales,  the  savage  customs, 
so  far  removed  from  anything  in  the  life  of  those  who 
have  told  and  listened  to  them  for  centuries,  prove 
that  the  stories  themselves,  even  the  most  elaborate, 
must  have  been  invented  long  ago.  This  is  not  to 
say,  of  course,  that  incidents  may  not  have  become 
conventional  and  have  been  used  as  the  material  of 
fresh  stories  by  comparatively  recent  inventors. 
Many  stories  are  undoubtedly  modern  in  this  sense. 
But  taking  most  story  cycles,  it  is  impossible  not  to 
feel  that  they  are  hoary  with  antiquity,  that  even  the 
combination  of  incidents  into  an  elaborate  whole 
dates  from  the  time  when  the  incidents  themselves 
were  entirely  credible  to  their  auditors.     Details  have 

^  See  Count  Goblet  d'Alviella,  The  Migration  of  Symbols. 

^  And,  we  may  add,  following  Mr  Hindes  Groome's  theory,  the 
diffusion  of  tales  by  gipsies,  many  of  whose  stories  are  versions  of 
European  tales.  See  Nat.  Rev.^  July,  1886  ;  In  Gypsy  Tents^  p.  169. 
Cf.  the  number  of  tales  Campbell  collected  from  wandering  tinkers. 
,  Apropos  of  this  theory,  it  is  interesting  to  note  how  the  knowledge  of 
metals  may  have  been  spread  through  neolithic  Europe,  from  the 
centres  where  it  had  been  discovered,  by  wandering  tribes  whom 
M.  Bataillard  connects  with  our  gipsies,  and  who  either  had  made 
the  discovery  themselves,  or  were  the  "commercial  agents"  of  those 
who  had  done  so.  See  Bertrand,  La  Gaule  avant  les  Gaulois^  pp.  226, 
260,  313. 


476  ORIGIN  AND  TRANSMISSION  OF  FOLK-TALES 

been  added  as  time  went  on  ;  details  borrowed  from 
increasing  civilisation,  like  Cinderella's  slipper  or  her 
fairy  godmother,  or  references  to  our  Lord  and  the 
saints,  or  to  Christian  ideas,  or  the  making  a  soldier 
of  Napoleon's  army  or  a  modern  Irishman  the  hero 
of  a  story  which  is  obviously  of  a  far  earlier  date. 
These  additions  do  not  disprove  the  antiquity  of  our 
tales.l 

But  is  it  possible  that  not  only  incidents  but 
elaborate  stories  also  could  exist  so  long  ?  To  argue 
thus  is  to  reveal  ignorance  of  the  tenacity  with  which 
men  hold  to  tradition,  of  the  extraordinary  vitality  of 
beliefs,  customs,  and  the  products  of  human  imagina- 
tion everywhere.  (The  Vedic  poems  were  orally 
handed  down  unchanged  for  thousands  of  years ; 
Christian  peasants  in  Europe  go  on  practising  pagan 
rites  which  ought  to  have  died  long  ago,  but  did  not.) 
It  is  even  possible  that  the  art  of  Palaeolithic  man,  his 
extraordinarily  exact  rendering  of  animal  forms,  which 
has  generally  been  believed  to  have  become  extinct 
with  the  dawn  of  the  Neolithic  age,  may  have  lingered 
on  in  some  out-of-the-way  corner,  and  sixty  cen- 
turies after  its  supposed  extinction  may  have  been 
introduced  by  artists  into  Greece,  where  it  originated, 
in  the  Minoan  artists,  the  love  of  life  and  movement 
which  we  see  in  their  animal  representations.^  Many 
similar  examples  might  be  adduced ;  we  turn  to  the 
tales  themselves,  and  we  find  that  the  variants  of  the 
Egyptian  story  of  the  Two  Brothers  (the  literary 
version  of  a  tale  already  old  four  thousand  years  ago), 
of  Polyphemus,  of  Cupid  and  Psyche,  of  Danae,  and 
of  a  score  of  others,  are  still  told  among  European 
peasants.  Age  can  not  wither  nor  custom  stale 
their  infinite  variety.  The  works  of  man's  hands 
decay  and   die  with    but    a    few  exceptions — stone 

^  Salomon  Reinach,  The  Story  of  Art  throughout  the  Ages^  p.  31. 
This  is  also  the  opinion  of  Professor  Sergi,  The  Mediterranean  Race^ 
p.  273. 


STYLE  OF  FOLK-TALES  477 

weapons,  the  Pyramids,  pottery,  coins.  But  the 
products  of  his  intellect  and  imagination,  of  his  soul 
and  spirit — religion,  poetry,  folk-tale — 07ice  they  have 
struck  root  in  the  soil  of  humanity — are  practically 
immortal.  They  have  been  sprinkled  with  the  Water 
of  Life !  These  ancient  folk-tales  come  to  us  out  of  a 
remote  past,  with  their  freshness  and  fairness 
undimmed,  as  does  the  light  of  the  stars  out  of 
inconceivably  remote  space. ^ 

Something-  may  here  be  said  regarding"  the  style  of 
folk-tales.  A  story  which  is  found  in  twenty  countries 
will  inevitably,  in  its  outward  dress,  bear  some/ 
relation  to  the  characteristics  of  each  country.  With 
a  poetical  people  like  the  Celts  it  will  be  highly 
imaginative  and  beautiful ;  among  the  Slavs,  super- 
stitious  to  a  degree,  it  will  be  full  of  the  horrible  and 
ghastly;  among  Italians  or  Frenchmen  it  will  have 
an  airy  grace.  Most  Eastern  tales  spin  out  their 
incidents  to  an  extreme  length,  and  deal  largely  in 
gorgeous  magnificence  and  vastness.  Many  savage 
or  barbaric  stories,  like  the  Malagasy  and  Swahili 
tales,  are  interminably  prolix ;  others,  like  the  Aino 

^  The  fact  that  tribal  legends  and  myths  are  represented  on 
certain  sacred  occasions  by  rude  drawings  or  other  primitive  devices, 
e.g.^  among  the  Australians,  the  Navajoes,  etc. ;  that  certain  groupings 
of  figures  in  Australian  rock-drawings  may  represent  some  well-known 
legend  ;  and  that  pictographic  representations  have  so  often  served  to 
embody  primitive  history,  makes  one  wonder  whether  some  of 
Palaeolithic  man's  life-like  drawings  may  not  have  depicted  legends, 
myths,  and  folk-tales.  It  is  tempting  to  think  that,  e.g.^  the  famous 
Femme  au  Renne  of  Laugerie- Basse  may  represent  some  story 
now  lost  for  ever,  perhaps  a  tale  of  beast-marriage  !  For  some 
Australian  instances,  see  R.  H.  Mathew's  paper  in  J.A.L^  xxv.  146. 
Among  several  Red  Indian  tribes  the  chief  outlines  of  the  myths 
recited  in  the  sacred  ceremonies  are  recorded  in  picture-writing  on 
birch-bark  or  wood  for  the  use  of  the  shamans  (Bur.  of  Eth.,  ^th  Report 
(Ojibways) ;  \A,th  Report  (Menominis) ;  Tanner's  Narrative^  p.  192 
(Pawnees) ).  From  private  information  I  learn  that,  in  Calabar,  tales 
which  seem  to  be  Mdrchen  are  recorded  in  a  curious  kind  of  symbolic 
writing  or  hieroglyphic  diagrams.  Further  investigation  may  lead  to 
the  discovery  of  other  instances  of  "  illustrated  "  folk-tales. 


478  ORIGIN  AND  TRANSMISSION  OF  FOLK-TALES 

and  Australian,  are  terse  and  short ;  others,  again, 
Polynesian  and  Maori,  are  extremely  delicate  and 
poetic  in  style.  Everything  depends  upon  the 
intellectual  outlook  of  the  race  or  of  the  folk  among 
whom  the  story  has  been  localised.  Here,  as 
elsewhere,  le  style,  cest  rhomme.  This,  coupled  with 
the  fact  that  all  localised  tales  are  full  of  local  beliefs, 
allusions,  customs,  etc.,  gives  to  the  variants  of  a 
cycle  much  individuality  in  spite  of  their  fundamental 
likeness,  and  makes  one,  familiar  with  many  tales, 
easily  refer  any  given  story  to  its  proper  present-day 
habitat.  If  we  could  only  do  as  much  for  its  original 
source,  how  much  would  folk-lore  be  enriched ! 

It  is  curious  to  observe  how  similar  the  intro- 
ductory and  concluding  formula  of  tales  from  widely 
separated  lands  are^ — a  fact  which  proves  how 
conservative  the  story-teller  is,  as  well  as  that  diffusion 
does  not  affect  the  essential  parts  of  the  story,  since 
such  unessential  details  are  so  strictly  adhered  to. 
*'  It  was  what  once  took  place,  and  if  it  had  never 
been,  it  would  not  now  be  related,"  is  a  common  intro- 
ductory phrase  in  Hungarian,  Basque,  Roumanian, 
and  other  tales,  reduced  to  ''There  was  once  a  time" 
(the  ''once  upon  a  time"  of  our  nurseries)  in  Celtic 
tales.  To  conclude  a  story,  we  have  the  comforting 
phrase  concerning  the  dramatis  per sonce,  "  And  if  they 
have  not  died  since  then,  they  are  alive  to  this  very 
day,"  which  occurs  in  tales  from  all  parts  of  Europe. 
A  frequent  device  of  the  story-teller  is  to  pretend,  e.g., 
if  the  story  closes  with  a  wedding,  that  he  himself 
was  present,  or  to  make  some  allusion  to  his  personal 
acquaintance  with  the  hero  or  heroine ;  while  in  all 
lands,  savage  or  civilised,  he  acts  the  story  with  much 
dramatic  ability.  Even  in  the  case  of  savage  tales 
we  find  stereotyped  formulae  existing,  like  the 
Melanesian  introduction,  "A  story  to  tell,"  or  the 
ending,  "  It  is  finished,"  or  "That  is  the  end  of  it" ; 
or,  in  the  case  of  a  short  tale,  "  Finished  is  the  story 


CONSERVATISM  IN  TALE  TELLING         479 

of  so-and-so  ;  not  a  very  long"  one."    As  to  the  tales 
themselves,  it  is  obvious  that,  in  the  course  of  ages,  a 
certain    liberty    has    been    allowed    in     transferring 
incidents  from  one  tale  to  another,  in  adding  bits 
from  the  teller's  own  inventive  skill,  and  in  altering. 
Local  colour,   too,   has    been    inevitable    as    stories 
passed  from  land  to  land,  and  there  are  few  story- 
tellers who  can  resist  the  temptation  of  **  padding," 
while    their    possession    of    the    dramatic    faculty, 
greater  or  less,  would  always   tend  to  modify  and 
alter  the  material  of  a  tale.     Yet  this  is  not  always 
the  case.     With  the  Eskimo,   "the  art  requires  the 
ancient  tales  to  be  related  as  nearly  as  possible  in 
the  words  of  the  original  version,  with  only  a   few 
arbitrary    reiterations,    and    otherwise    only    varied 
according  to  the  individual  talents  of  the  narrator,  as 
to  the  mode  of  recitation,  gesture,  etc.  .  .  .  Generally 
the  smallest  deviation  from  the  original  version  will 
be  taken  notice  of,   and  corrected,  if  any  intelligent 
person  happens  to  be  present.     This  circumstance 
accounts  for  their  existence  in  an  unaltered  shape 
through  ages."^    And  in  all  tales  we  observe   how 
incidents,  common   to  various  cycles,  are  related  in 
stereotyped  phrases,  or,  when  they  occur  more  than 
once  in  the  same  story,  they  are  repeated  in  much 
the  same  way ;  while,  if  the  hero  has  to  visit  two  or 
three  personages  in  succession  (giants,  witches,  kings, 
etc.),  each  successive  visit  is  simply  a  duplicate  or 
triplicate  of  the  first.      This  is  the  manner  of  all 
primitive  literature :  it  is  the  manner,   too,   of   the 
child  who  has  a  story  to  tell.     The  real  marvel  is  how, 
within  these  stereotyped  formulae,  there  is  so  much 
vivid  incident,  so  many  romantic  situations,  so  much 
.  poetry — a  world  of  blithe  hearts,  strong  arms,  and 
brave  deeds. 

It  has  sometimes  been  supposed  that  all  stories 
were  told  at  first  in  primitive  verse.     We  have  seen 

^  Rink,  p.  85. 


480  ORIGIN  AND  TRANSMISSION  OF  FOLK-TALES 

how  ballads  reproduce  exactly  the  conditions  of  folk- 
tales ;  in  some  lands  a  story,  current  elsewhere  in 
folk-tale  form,  is  found  occasionally  as  a  ballad,  and 
lacks  a  folk-tale  version.  It  is  certain,  too,  that 
among  all  primitive  peoples,  in  telling  a  story  or 
relating  the  events  of  the  past  day,  there  is  a  strong 
tendency,  like  that  of  Silas  Wegg,  to  drop  into 
poetry.  The  narrative  becomes  a  rhythmic  chant, 
with  recurring  formulae — a  kind  of  chorus,  which  is 
taken  up  by  the  audience  whenever  it  occurs.^  The 
Celtic  and  Teutonic  bards  turned  into  extempore 
verse  the  daily  doings  of  their  chiefs  and  kings,  and 
this  is  but  a  more  modern  instance  of  what  was 
common  in  far-off  ages,  and  still  exists  among 
savages.  Now,  in  many  European  and  other  tales 
we  note  a  mingling  of  prose  and  verse,  as  if  a  ballad 
had  been  partially  metamorphosed  into  a  folk-tale. 
Such  compounds  are  known  as  cante-fables.  They 
are  probably  to  be  distinguished  from  tales  in  which 
recurring  incidents  are  put  into  a  rhymed  formula,  or 
where  the  emotional  and  emphatic  parts  are  versified, 
or  others  in  which  scraps  of  old  magical  spells  are 
given  in  their  poetic  form.  Some,  like  Mr  Jacobs, 
have  thought  that  the  cante-fable  is  the  primitive  germ 
out  of  which  sprang  ballad  and  folk-tale  both.^  But 
such  minglings  of  prose  and  verse  rather  suggest  a 
gradual  disintegration  of  existing  ballads  into  prose. 
The  truer  theory  seems  to  be  that  of  M.  Jacottet 
regarding  similar  tales  among  the  Basutos,  who  sing 
the  metrical  parts  of  their  cante-fables.  He  thinks 
that  all  Basuto  tales  once  possessed  these  verses,  and 
is  certain  that  in  some,  at  least,  the  "song  has  been, 
as  it  were,  the  nucleus  round  which  the  whole  story 
was  formed " ;    in  others,   however,   it    has    only    a 

1  Cf.  Batchelor,  2nd  edition,  p.  370.  St  John,  i.  104.  Wallace, 
Amazon^  p.  64.  Yrjo  Hirn,  Origin  of  Art,  Grosse,  Anfdnge  der 
Kunst,  p.  222  seq. 

-  Jacobs,  p.  247. 


WERE  FOLK-TALES  ONCE  POEMS?  481 

secondary  importance.  Amongr  the  Negroes  the 
interested  audience  at  intervals  join  in  singfing-  lines  in 
the  story,  and  repeat  them  till  they  are  tired  ;  while  the 
Eskimo  have  prose  tales  with  interspersed  recitatives 
and  songfs,  besides  tales  chanted  throughout,  and 
rhythmic  poems.  In  India,  by  a  reverse  process,  the 
bards  often  insert  prose  pieces  between  the  metrical 
parts  of  their  chants — an  actual  instance,  perhaps,  of 
verse  disintegration  into  prose. ^ 

Are  we,  then,  to  suppose  that  all  folk-tales  were 
once  ballads,  or  at  least,  possessed  a  metrical  or 
rhythmic  form  ?  Algonquin  sagas,  told  of  the  mythical 
heroes  of  the  past,  were  once,  in  Mr  Leland's  opinion, 
in  verse  form,  and  so  handed  down  from  one  genera- 
tion to  another.  Among  the  Menomini  Indians,  too, 
myths  (some  of  which  are  folk-tale  variants)  are 
chanted  by  the  shamans  at  the  initiation  of  youths, 
while  the  Samoan  tale  of  Siati,  already  referred  to,  is 
an  epic  poem  of  twenty-six  stanzas,^  We  cannot 
assert  dogmatically,  however,  in  spite  of  such 
instances  and  of  the  cante-fable  wherever  found — 
European,  Eskimo,  Negro,  or  Basuto — that  <3;// folk- 
tales once  were  poems  or  ballads,  though  some  no 
doubt  were.  Even  among  savages,  e.g.,  the  Dyaks, 
actual  prose  narratives  occur  alongside  those  which 
are  sung  or  chanted,  and  both  forms  are  transmitted 
from  generation  to  generation.  There  may  have 
been  some  primitive  rhythmic  narrative,  neither  verse 
nor  prose,  out  of  which  ballads  on  the  one  hand  and 
folk- tales  on  the  other,  were  evolved.  In  other  cases 
there  may  have  been  ballads  which  degenerated 
partly  (the  cante-fable)  or  wholly  into  prose.     While, 

1  Jacottet,  Intro.,  p.  ix.  Dennett,  p.  25.  Bureau  of  Ethnology, 
hth  Annual  Report,  p.  409  seq.    Temple,  i.  5. 

2  Leland,  A.L.,  p.  12.  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  14///  Annual  Report, 
p.  87.  A  full  account  of  the  universality  of  ballads  or  poems  as  the 
earliest  historical  documents  will  be  found  in  Buckle,  History  of 
Civilisation,  i.  268.     See  also  Gummere,  Beginnings  of  Poetry. 

2   H 


485  ORIGIN  AND  TRANSMISSION  OF  FOLK-TALES 

again,  prose  tales  may  have  existed  from  the  very  first. 
A  comparison  of  ballads  and  folk-tales  preserving  the 
same  story  or  incident  would  do  much  to  elucidate 
this  problem,  if  pursue'd  over  a  sufficiently  wide  field. 

Though  folk-tales,  as  we  have  studied  them  here, 
have  a  vital  interest  as  exhibiting  the  beliefs  and 
customs  of  early  men,  this  is  only  one  side  of  the 
subject.  Their  true  appeal  is  not  only  an  anthro- 
pological one.  They  appeal  to  us  as  literature — the 
unwritten  literature  of  far -back  ages  ;  they  show  us  how 
the  imagination,  the  inventive  skill,  the  literary  instinct, 
of  men  worked  in  the  dark  backward  and  abysm 
of  time.  Fancy  held  men  captive  in  its  airy  bonds 
quite  as  much  then  as  it  has  done  at  any  later  age. 
We  are  charmed  by  these  tales  as  children,  rapt  away 
into  a  mystic  land  of  noble  heroes  and  lovely  heroines, 
giants,  ogres,  witches — a  land  of  enchantments,  where 
animals  and  things  talk  and  are  the  friends  of  men, 
where  transformation  occurs  every  day,  where  death 
and  pain  are  vanquished  ;  a  land,  too,  of  grim  and  grisly 
shapes,  and  deeds,  and  thoughts,  where  horror  and 
fear  stalk  abroad  in  the  daylight.  But  even  from 
these  there  are  ways  of  escape- — magic  arms,  incred- 
ible strength,  the  undaunted  spirit.  Who  does  not 
recall  with  joy  the  glad  time 

"When  the  breeze  of  a  joyful  dawn  blew  free 
In  the  silken  sail  of  infancy," 

as  he  read  or  heard  those  unceasingly  charming  folk- 
and  fairy-tales.  In  sooth  it  was  a  goodly  time.  As 
grown  men  and  women,  we  take  up  a  volume  of  these 
tales,  and  perhaps,  ingrates  that  we  are,  we  are 
ashamed  that  they  should  still  charm  and  please  us ! 
But  we  are  inevitably  drawn  to  study  them,  and  then 
we  are  amazed,  as  an  investigation  of  their  contents 
reveals  to  us,  that  such  marvellous  invention  and 
execution,  such  tender  and  moving  situations,  such  a 


FOLK-TALES  AS  LITERATURE  483 

world  of  romance,  should  have  been  the  work  of  men 
and  ages  so  remote  from  us,  so  backward  and  bar- 
barous, as  we  suppose.  But  so  it  is.  The  shuttle  of 
fancy  shot  fast  across  the  loom  of  thought,  and 
wrought  rich  fabrics  of  imaginative  art  out  of  the 
things  of  everyday  life.  And  if  these  tales  contain, 
as  was  inevitable,  wild  passions,  rough  combats,  brutal 
lusts,  there  exists  side  by  side  with  tKem  much  that  is 
tender  and  beautiful — rainbow-hued  romance,  love 
and  heroism,  sunshine  and  sparkling  seas,  and  birds 
and  flowers.  Those  who  can  thus  look  on  these  tales 
as  primitive  literature  will  not  look  askance  at  us  who 
seek  to  determine  the  stuff  out  of  which  they  were 
woven,  and  who  resolve  their  magical  elements  into 
once-living  belief  and  custom.  For  such  a  method 
takes  nothing  from  their  value  ;  it  shows  us  early  man 
as  the  idle  child  playing  with  the  grim  realities  of  life ; 
it  sends  us  back  to  the  tales  themselves  with  a  new 
enthusiasm. 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  APPENDIX 

/      The  following  list  includes  such  works  as  are  only  referred  to 
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Allen,  Grant— 7"-^^  Attis  of  Catullus^  1892.    \The  Evolution  of  the 

Idea  of  God,  1897.  ^ 

Arabian  Nights  Entertainments.    See  Burton,  Payne,  Scott. 
Arnason,  Jon. — Icelandic  Legends.     Translated  by  G.  Powell  and 

E.  Magnusson  ;  2  vols.,  1864-66. 
ASBjoRNSEN,  P.   C— Tales  from  the  Fjeld.    Translated  by  G.  W. 

Dasent;  1874. 
Bancroft,  H.  Yi.— Native  Races  of  the  Pacific   States  of  North 

America,  5  vols.,  1875-76. 
Baring-Gould,  Rev.  S.— Curious  Myths  of  the  Middle  Ages,  1888. 
Basile,  G. — II  Pentamerone.     Translated  by  Sir  R.  Burton  ;  2  vols., 

1893. 
Basset,  ^Y.^t.—Contes  Populaires  Berbdres,  Paris,  1887. 
Batchelor,   Rev.  J. — The  Ainu  of  Japan,  1892.     The  Ainus  and 

their  Folk- Lore,  1901  (referred  to  as  2nd  edition  of  the  above). 
Beauvois,  E. — Conies  Populaires  de  la  Norvege,  de  la  Finlande,  et 

de  la  Bourgogne,  Paris,  1862. 
Benfey,  Theodore — Panchatantra.     Translation  and  commentary  ; 

2  vols.,  Leipzig,  1859. 
Bent,   J.   Theodore — The  Cycladesj  or.  Life  among  tlie  Insular 

Greeks,  1883. 
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Superstitions  et  Survivances :  leurs  origines  et  transformations, 

5  vols.,  1896. 
Bernoni,  D.  G. — Fiabe  popolari  veneziane,  Venezia,    1873.     Tra- 

diziane  popolari  veneziane,  1875. 
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Fables  and  Tales,  1864. 
Brett,  Rev.  W.  H. — Legends  and  Myths  of  the  Aboriginal  Tribes  of 

British  Guia?uz,  N.D. 
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vols.,  1885.     Supplemental  Nights,  6  \o\s.,  i%2>6-^Z. 
[Busk,  }A\ssy— Sagas  from  the  Far  East,  1873. 

485 


486  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  APPENDIX 

Caballero,     Fern  an — Cuentos   y   poesias   populares   Andaluces, 
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-  Callaway,   Bp. — Nursery  Tales,   Traditions,  and  Histories  of  the 

Zulus,  1868.     Religious  System  of  the  Amazulu,  1884. 
■^  Campbell,  J.  F. — Popular  Tales  of  the  West  Highlands^  4  vols.,  1890. 
■~  Campbell,  Rev.  J.  G. — The  Fiansj  or,  Stories,  Poems,  and  Traditions 

of  Fionn  and  his  Warrior  Band,  1891. 
~"' Campbell,  Rev.  J.  G. — Superstitions  of  the  Scottish  Highlands. 
Carnoy,  E.  H. — Litterature  orale  de  la  Picardie,  Paris,  1883. 
C  ASA  LIS,  E. — The  Basutos,  1861. 
*"  Gastrin,   M.  A. — Ethnologische   Vorlesungen  iiber   die  Altaischen 
Volker,  St  Petersburg,  1857. 

—  Cavallius,  G.  and  J. — Schwedische  Volkssagen  und  Marc  hen,  Wien, 

1848. 
~-  Cerquand — Legendes  et  Recits  Populaires  du  Pays  Basque,  2  parts, 
Pau,  1875-76. 

—  Chambers,  R. — Popular  Rhytnes  of  Scotland,  1847. 
Chamberlain,   Basil  Hall — Aino  Folk-Tales,    1888.      See   also 

Ko-ji-ki. 
--Chatelain,  K'E.^v.— Folk-Tales  of  Angola^  Boston,  1894. 

Chodzko,  a. — Contes  des  Paysans  et  des  Pdtres  Slaves,  Paris,  1864. 
A  Clarke,  Kate  M'Cosh — Maori  Tales  and  Legends,  1896. 
Clodd,  Y^m i^^v>— Tom-Tit-Tot,  1898. 
Clouston,  W.  a. — A  Group  of  Eastern  Romances,  1889.     Popular 

Tales  and  Fictions,  2  vols.,  1887. 
CODRINGTON,    R.    H. — The  Mela?tesians  :   Studies  in  their  Anthro- 
pology and  Folk-Lore,  1 89 1. 
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COLSHORN,  C.  and  T. — Mdrchen  und  Sagen,  Hanover,  1854. 
Comparetti,  D. — Novelline  Popolari  Italiane,  Rome,  1875. 
■"  CONSIGLIERI,  Pedroso — Portuguese  Folk-Tales.    Translated  by  H. 

Monteiro  ;  1870. 
i  CosQUiN,  Emmanuel — Contes  Populaires  de  Lorraine,  2  vols.,  Paris, 

N.D. 

County  Folk- Lore  :  Sussex,  Folk-Lore  Society,  1895. 
'  Cox,  Miss  R. — Cinderella,  Folk-Lore  Society,  1893. 
Crane,  T.  Y.— Italian  Popular  Tales,  1888. 

Crawley,    Ernest— Z^^    Mystic    Rose:    A    Study    of  Primitive^ 
Marriage,  \i^7..         -  -  -        —    •  -  — -    -  -    

-  Croker,  T.  C. — Fairy  Legends  and  Traditions  of  South  of  Ireland, 

3  vols.,  1859. 
-•Crooke,  W. — Religion  and  Folk-Lore  of  Northern  India,  2  vols., 

1896. 
'^  CURTIN,  J. — Irish  Fairy  Legends. 

-  Gushing,  F.  Yi.—Zuni  Folk-Tales,  New  York,  1901. 
■"  Dasent,  G.  W. — Popular  Tales  from  the  Norse,  1859. 
-  Day.  Lal  V>Y.^hK\— Folk-Tales  of  Bengal,  1883. 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  APPENDIX  487 

Dennett,  R.  E. — Notes  on  the  Folk-Lore  of  the  Fjort{¥rtnch  Congo), 

1898. 
Dennys,  N.  B.— The  Polk-Lore  0/ China,  1876. 
Deulin,  Ch. — Contes  d^un  Buveur  de  Biere,  Paris,  1870. 
DOBRIZHOFFER,  M. — The  Abipones  of  Paraguay,  3  vols.,  1822. 
DORMAN,   R.   M. — The    Origin  of  Primitive  Superstitions,   Phila- 
delphia, 1 88 1. 
Douglas,  Sir  George — Scottish  Fairy  Tales,  n.d. 
DozON,  A. — Contes  Albanais,  Paris,  1881. 
DuLAC,  H. — Quatre  Contes  Arabes,  1884. 
Ellis,  A.  B.—The  Tshi-speaking  Peoples  of  West  Africa,  1887.     The 

Yoruba-speaking  Peoples  of  West  Africa,  1894. 
Ellis,  Rev.  W. — Polynesian  Researches,  2  vols.,  1829. 
Elton,  Charles — Origins  of  English  History,  1882. 
Farrer,  J.  A. — Primitive  Manners  and  Customs,  1879. 
Ferrand,  G. — Contes  Populaires  Malgaches,  Paris,  1893. 
Fleury,  Jean — Litterature  Orale  de  la  Basse- Normandie,  1883. 
Folk- Lore  :  A  Quarterly  Review,  Folk-Lore  Society,  1890,  and  since. 

Cited  as  F.L. 
Folk-Lore  Journal,  Folk-Lore   Society,  7   vols.,    1883-89.     Cited   as 

FLJ. 
Folk-Lore   Record,   Folk-Lore   Society,   5   vols.,    1878-82.     Cited  as 

F.L.R. 
'Frazer,  J.  G. — The  Golden  Bough,  3  vols.,  1902.     Totemism,  1887. 
•Frere,  Miss — Old  Deccan  Days,  1868. 
Gaal,  G.  von — Mdrchen  der  Magyar  en,  Vienna,  1822. 
Garnett,  Miss  Lucy — Greek  Folk  Poesy,  2  vols.,  1896. 
Gerard,  E. — The  Land  Beyond  the  Forest,  2  vols.,  1888. 
Giles,  H.  A. — Strange  Stories  from  a  Chinese  Studio,  2  vols.,  1880. 
Gill,  Rev.  W.  W. — Myths  and  Songs  from  the  South  Pacific,  1876. 
Goldschmidt,  VJ_.^—Russische  Mdrchen,  Leipzig,  1883. 
GOMME,  G.  'L.—Ethfwlogy  in  Folk-Lore,  1892.    Folk-Lore  Relics  of 

Early  Village  Life,  1883.  ' ' 

Gonzenbach,  L. — Sicilianische  Mdrchen,  i\o\s.,  Leipzig,  1870. 

Grey,  Sir  G. — Polynesian  Mythology,  1857. 

Griffis,  W.  ^.^JapaTtese  Fairy  World. 

Grimm,   The   Broih^rs— Household  Tales.     Edited  by  Mrs    Hunt ; 

2  vols.,  1884. 
Grimm,  Jacob — Teutonic  Mythology.    Translated  by  J.    S.    Stally- 

brass  ;  4  vols.,  1880-88. 
Grinnell,  J.  B. — Pawnee  Hero  Stories  and  Folk-Tales,  1893. 
Grundtvig,,  S. — Danische    Volksmdrchen,  2  vols.,  Leipzig,  1878-79. 

See  also  Mulley,  J. 
Gubernatis,   Angelo  de — Novelline  di  Santo  Stefano,  Turin,  1869. 

Novelline  popolari,  Milan,  1883.  ^Zoological  Mythology,  2  vols., 

1870.— Cited  as  Z.M. 
Guest,  Lady  Charlotte — The  Mabinogion,  3  vols.,  1838-49. 


488  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  APPENDIX 

Hahn,  J.  G.   VON — Griechische  und  Albanesiche  Mdrchen^  i  vols., 
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—  Halliwell,  J.  O. — Popular  Rhymes  and  Nursery  Tales,  1849. 
Haltrich,  ]o?,y.vb.— Deutsche  Volksjndrchen,  Berlin,  1856. 

—  Hartland,  E.  S.~^The  Legend  of  Perseus,  3  vols.,   1894-96.  *The 

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Haupt,  L.,  und  J.  E.  Schmaler —  Volkslieder  des  Wenden,  2  vols., 

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~\  Henderson,  W. — Folk- Lore  of  the  Northern  Counties  of  England, 

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«  Hyde,  Douglas — Beside  the  Fire.     Gaelic  Folk  Stories  ;  1891. 
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—  Im  Thurn,  E.  F. — Among  the  Indians  of  Guiana,  1883. 

—  •  Jacobs,  ].— English  Fairy  Tales,  1898. 

Jacottet,  E. — Contes  Populaires  de  Basouttos,  Paris,  1895. 
Jagitch,  V. — "  Aus  dem  Siid-slavischen  Marchen  schatz,"  in  Archiv. 
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—  Jastrow,  M. — The  Religion  of  Babylonia,  1898. 
Jevons,  F.  B. — Plutarch's  Romane  Questions,  1892. 
Johnston,  Sir  Harry — The  Uganda  Protectorate,  2  vols.,  1902. 
Jones,  Rev.  W.  H.,  and  L.  L.  Y^SiOVY— Folk-Tales  of  the  Magyars, 

1889. 
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—  Kathakoqa ;  or.  Treasury  of  Stories.     Translated  by  C.  H.  Tawney  ; 

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—  Katha  Sarit  Sagara;  or.  Ocean  of  the  Streams  of  Story.     Translated 

by  C.  H.  Tawney  ;  2  vols.,  Calcutta,  1880-84. 
*  Keightley,  T.— Fairy  Mythology,  1900. 
Kennedy,  P. — Legendary  Fictions  of  the  Irish  Celts,  1866. 
Kingsley,  Mass— West  African  Studies,  1899. 
KiRBY,  W.  Y.~The  Hero  of  Esthonia,  2  vols.,  1895. 
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Ueberlieferungen  in  Voigtlande,  Leipzig,  1867. 
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BIBLIOGRAPHICxVL  APPENDIX  489 

Leitner. — Races  and  Languages  of  Dardistan. 

Leland,  C.  G. — Algonquin  Legends  of  New  England^  1892. — Cited 

as  A.L.     Etruscan  Roman  Remains^    1892. — Cited  as  E.R.R. 

Gypsy  Sorcery^  1891. 
Leskien,  a.,  and  K.  Brugman — Litauische  Volkslieder  und  Mcercken 

aus  dent  preussichen  und  dent  russischen  Litauen^  Strasburg,  1882. 
Lewin,  T.  H.— Wild  Races  of  Soutk-East  India,  1870. 
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Macdonald,  D. — Africana,  2  vols.,  1882. 
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MacLennan,  J.  F. — Studies  in  Ancient  History,  2nd  sen,  1896. 
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Meier,  E. — Deutsche  Volksmdrchen  aus  Schwaben,  n.d. 
Melusine,  Recueil  des  Mythologie,  etc.,    Paris,    1878,  and  following 

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Powell  and  Magnusson.    See  Arnason. 


490  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  APPENDIX 

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BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  APPENDIX  491 

I  Theal,  G.  M. — Kafir  Folk-Lore^  N.D. 

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Tuscan  Fairy  Tales,  1884. 
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2  vols.,  1 89 1. 
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Wien,  1864. 
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Waldau,  a. — 15oh?niSches  Mdrchenbuch,  Prag,  i860.  ^ 
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'SWebster,  Rev.  W. — Basque  Legends,  1879. 

-WiDTER,    G.,   and  A.    Wolf — "  Volksmarchen   aus    Venetien,"    in 
Jahrbuchfiir  rom.  und  Eng.  lit.,  vol.  vii. 
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zigeuner,  Budapest,  1886. 
-'Wolf,  J.  W. — Deutsche  Mdrchen  und  Sagen,  Leipzig,  1845.    Deutsche 

Hausmdrchen,  Gottingen,  1851. 
-  WRATiSLAw7~Anf.^=^5r':r/j'  Folk-Tales  from  exclusively   Slavonic 

Sources,  1889.  ^ 

-ZiNGERLE,   I.    \m&  y.^^Tiroler  Kinder  und  Hausmdrchen,  2  vols. 
1852. 


INDEX 


[Titles  of  stories  are  in  italics.     Numbers  in  brackets  show  that  the 
reference  is  to  a  note  on  the  page  cited.^ 


Abigail,  132 

Abipones,  161,  186 

Abistanooch,  344 

Aborigines  of  India,  116,  251 

Abyssinians,  21,  25 

Achilles,  203 

Actaeon,  329 

Acta  Sanctorum,  223-4 

Adolphe^  241 

Adonis,  99 

^neas,  115 

Aerial  flights,  222 

-(Esculapius,  (97) 

Africans,  39,  116,  125,  161,  181,  200, 

203,  209,  277,  317,  335,  337-8. 

See  Bantus,  Negroes,  etc. 
Agricultural  magic,  99 
Agrippa  of  Nettesheim,  96 
Ainos,  29,  42,  101-2,  117,  124,  186, 

196,  247,  261,  264,  275,  (277), 

289,  337 
Ai  Tolysy^  170 
Alberic,  374 
Albert  the  Great,  96 
Alexander  the  Great,  66,  (266) 
AH  Baba,  469 
Allen,  Grant,  99,  115,  (128) 
Alpine  race,  104 
Amalthea,  221 
Amazimu,  301 
Amboina,  144 
Americans,  Central,  250,  266 

North.     See  Red  Indians 

South,  100,  II 6-7,  456 
Amis  and  Ainile,  422 


Amphiaraus,  {77) 

Amrita,  54 

Amulets,  201,  208 

Anacreon,  (189) 

Anansi,  216 

Ancestor  as  animal,  116,  249,  251 

as  tree,  115,  (128) 

reincarnation  of,  123 

worship,  375 
Andamanese,  100,  345 
Andrianoro^  243 
Andromeda,  408 
Angurboda,  263 
Anichkof,  Prof.,  (96) 
Animal  ancestors,  116,  249,  251 

births,  263,  (278),  360-1 

kings,  39,  245 

mother,  30,  220,  232,  273 

^yorship,  193,248,(397) 
Animals  abducting  women,  277 

acting  as  men,  38,  183 

at  first  men,  182,  248 

dead,  restored,  (84),  (loi) 

descent    from,     183,    260,    263, 
266 

friendly,  57,  (171),  201,  7.\o  seq.^ 
221,  225  seq.^  249 

future  life  of,  (102) 

gold-producing,  220,  462 

living  underground,  245 

men  at  first  were,  182,  248 

rogue,  39 

suckled  by  women,  (277) 

suckling  children,  (277) 

talking,  38  seq.,  247 


494 


INDEX 


Animals,  wisdom,  41 

see  Animism,  Totemism,  Trans- 
formation 

Animism,  38,  180,  188,  199,  247,  273 

Annamese,  33,  86 

Anthropological  school,  1 5 

Anpu^  127 

Anubis,  90 

Apep,  407 

Aphrodite,  198 

Apollo,  408 

Apollodorus,  (78),  (90) 

Apollonius,  (97) 

Apuleius,  325 

Arabian  Nights,  14,  60,  69,  (139), 
155,  165,  201,  212,  314,  385 

Arabs,  41,  198,  335 

Arawaks,  184,  374 

Areoi,  317 

Argo,  241 

Argonautica,  10,  (59) 

Aristotle,  389 

Arnold,  M.,  10 

Art,  primitive,  (2),  476,  (477) 

Artemis,  96 

Arthur,  203 

Aryans,  249 

Assiepattle,  (49),  402 

Assyrians,  37,  348 

Asura,  (72) 

Atalanta,  177 

Athenaeus,  295 

Attis,  99,  (128) 

Augustus,  (266) 

Australians,  29,  87,  loi,  108,  115, 
117, 123, 145, 180,  182,  206,  219, 
247-8,  249,  316,  322,  335,  338, 
343,  376,  398,  (407),  470 

Awiri,  330 

Aztecs,  471 

Baba  Yaga,  52,  55,  (78),  197,  285, 

290,  303 
Babylonian  spells,  473 
Bacchic  mysteries,  88 
Bacon,  R.,  96 
Bahar  i  Danush^  28 1 
Baiamai,  87,  154 
Bakalai,  275 
Balder,  142 

Ballads,  42,  104,  105,  (in),  (116), 
162,     164,    256-7,    (298),    388, 
480  seq. 
diffusion  of,  473 
themes  of,  473 


Ball-Carrier^  286,  461 
Balmung,  204 
Banks  Islanders,  147 
Bantus,  39,  86,  345,  392 
Bata,  113,  127 
Bathing  images,  76 
Baptism,  pagan,  (76) 
Barlaaju  and  Josaphat,  453 
Barrenness,  413 
Barrett,  Prof.,  210 
Basile,  14,  326 
Basques,  38,  471 
Basutos,  (407) 
Batchelor,  Rev.  J.,  275 
Battle  of  the  Birds,  193 
Bayle,  379 
Bear  Chief,  175,  379 
BeaT^s  Ear,  388 
Beast  children,  (277) 

fables,  38 

marriage,  10,  253  seq.,  273,  339 
Belgium,  100 

Benfey,  (166),  (228),  246,  452 
Bent,  T.,  -j^ 
Beowulf,  408 
Berbers,  39 
Berchtha,  303 
Berenger-Feraud,  (76) 
Bergoia,  294 
Bheki  the  Frog,  346 
Bird  that  made  Milk,  The,  256,  32] 
Birth,  magic,  234 

monstrous,  263 
Black  Bull  d*  Norroway,  328 
Blackstone,  374 
Blood  talking,  214 

covenant,  250 
Blue-beard,  10,  307 
Boand,  317 
Boccaccio,  14 
Bodhi-tree,  (443) 
Boece,  H.,  11 
Bolotoo,  204 
Bona  Dea,  319 
Bondeis,  20c 

Bones  of  dead  preserved,  100,  1 1 1 
Bony,  168 

Book  of  Dead,  (128) 
Boots,  371 
Bora,  316 
Borneo,  427 

Borough-English,  372  seq. 
Boston  of  Ettrick,  (104) 
Botocudoes,  470 
Brazil,  322 


INDEX 


495 


Brer  Rabbit,  39 
Bretons,  25,  144 
Briar  Rose,  The,  85 
Bride  hiding,  2 1 

the  true,  23 
Bronte,  E.,  42 
Bronze  culture,   diffusion   of,  472, 

(475)  ,  ,      , 

Buddhism,  97,  116,  (215),  224,  303, 

(443),  471 

influence   of,  on  folk-tales,  237, 
(243),  246 
Buddhist  origin  of  folk-tales,  452 

literature,  38,  (228) 
Buite,  341 
Bulgarians,  (103) 
Bull-roarer,  87,  (88),  316 
Bundle  of  life,  132 
Bunjil,  337 
Bunyarl,  182 
Bunyip,  (407) 
Burial  rites,  99 
Bushmen,  39,  184,  196 
Bush  soul,  147 
Butler,  Bishop,  182 

Cadmus,  90 
Callaway,  209 
Cambodjans,  86,  318 
Campbell  of  I  slay,  98,  166,  367 
Cannibalism,  22,  279 

in  folk-tales,  302  seq.,  32 1 

legal,  299 

magic,  299 

origin  of,  298  seg. 

ritual,  297,  303 

witch,  303,  428 
Canrig  the  Stumpy,  290 
Cante-fable,  480 
Cap  of  InvisilDility,  221 
Carcase  turning  into  insects,  (265), 

(289) 
Caribs,  iii 
Carpet,  magic,  (221) 
Caucasic  element  in  the  East,  472 
Caucasus,  peoples  of  the,  335 
Caul,  144 
Celebes,  21,  318 

Celts,  (26),  (28),  (35),  41,  44,  54,  65, 
88,   102,  (103),   104,   184,   200, 
204,  222,  349,  406,  (407),  425 
Celtic  spells,  473 
Ceramese,  108 
Ceramic  art,  470 
Ceridwen,  165 


Ceylon,  295 

Chamberlain,  B.  H.,  247 

Champa  Dal,  138,  291,  390 

Chao  Gnoh,  311 

Charlemagne,  203 

Charles  II.,  66 

Charms,  201,  214,  473 

Chederles,  388 

Childe  Rowland,  22 

Childe  Wynd,  (151) 

Children  suckled  by  animals,  277 

Chinese,    156,    161,   198,  207,  261, 
335,  401,  427 

Chinese  ware  in  ancient  Egypt,  472 

Christianity,  influence  of,  on  cus- 
toms, 303 
influence  of,  on  folk-tales,  9,  19, 
388,  476 

Church  built  over  holy  well,  'j'j 

Churinga,  123,  145,  322 

Circe,  10,  150 

Clairvoyance,  208,  (315) 

Cleostratus,  397 

Clodd,  E.,  143 

Clouston,  W.  A.,  314 

Comb,  (180) 

Comoetho,  126 

Conception,  123 

Connla's  Well,  317 

Core,  266 

Coreans,  39 

Corpse,  vitality  of,  101-2 

Cosquin,  E.,  246,  453-4 

Couvade,  471 

Covenanters,  224 

Cox,  Miss,  15 

Cox,  Sir  G.  W.,  14,  432 

Creation  myths,  (102) 

Criminal  as  victim,  400 

Cromm  Cruach,  425 

Cronus,  49,  (288) 

Crookes,  Sir  W.,  208 

Crystal-gazing,  34  seq.,  208 

Culture  heroes,  299 

Cumulative  tales,  188,  469 

Cupid  and  Psyche,  476 

Cushing,  F.  H.,  455,  467 

Cyclades,  Tj,  88,  100 

Cycles  of  tales — 
Abandoned  Wife,  (24),  67,  466 
Aladdin,  14,  137,  201,  (216),  237, 

321 
AndrocleSj  246 

Ass,  Table,  and  Cudgel,  214,  434 
Barrenness  removed,  410 


496 


INDEX 


Cycles  of  tales — 

Bear's  Son,  270,  385,  467 
Beauty  and  Beast,  150,  253,  269, 

273j  327,  338,  346,  361 
Blue-Beard,  53,  142, 293,  306,  467 
Briar  Rose,  31 
Cannibal  Captor,  195 
Husband,  178,  292 
Wife,  298 
Cap  o'  Rushes,  362,  467 
Catskin,  (197),  467 
Churlish  Brothers,  356 
Cinderella,    15,   30,   31,  46,  106, 
108,  220,  231,  273,  283,  297, 

357 
Clever  Bargain,  366 
Covetous  Companion,  106 
Cupid  and  Psyche,  26,  190-1,  227, 
(243),   253,   (257),   261,   325, 
338,  361,  467 
Cyclops,  (49),  195,  279  seq.,  299 
Danae,  (411) 
Dancing  Daughters,  (222) 

Water,  59,  119 
Dead  Mother,  42 

Rider,  105 

Visitor,  103 
Devil  Outwitted,  416 
Dog  Gellert,  246 
Dragon  Sacrifice,  17,  (49),  234-5, 

(267),  381 
Eating  Bird,  41 
Flight  from  Giant,  193 
Forbidden    Chamber,    173,   306, 

421 
Fortunate  Youth,  365 
Fountain  of  Youth,  65 
Friendly  animals,  224  seq.^  297 
Frog  Bridegroom,  256,  269,  273, 

361,  405 
Giant  with  no  Soul,  133  seq.^  211 
Godfather,  415 
Golden  Bird,  230 
Gluttonous  Girl,  294 
Grateful  Debtor,  416 
Hand  of  Glory,  32 
Impostor,  56,  213,  240 
Jack  and  Beanstalk,  30,  286, 432, 

455 
Jealous  Brothers,  355 
Jealous  Sisters,  12,  (114),  (263), 

359 
Kind  and  Unkmd,  (191),  (246) 
King  and  Wild  Man,  312,  384, 

467 


Cycles  of  tales  — 

Koshchei    the     Deathless,    312, 

467 
Language  of  Birds,  40 
Lost  Husband  or  Wife,  325  seq. 

Member,  98 
Magic  Horse,  173,  310 

Mirror,  34,  469 

Pipe,  no 

Sack,  84,  216,  434 

Treasures,  158 
Master  Thief,  122 
Melusina,  158,  329,  346 
Mermaid  or  Seal  Wife,  275 
Ogre  Outwitted,  282,  299 
Ogre's  Daughter,  98 
Old  Woman  and  Pig,  188 
Osiris,  90 
Outcast  Son,  364 
Perseus,  55,   119,   159,  202,  206, 

234,  378,  381 
Promised  Child,  239,  (246),  (253), 

311,  \iQseq. 
Puss  in  Boots,  13,  38,  195,  225, 

467 
Quest,  61,  353 
Ransomed  Parent,  421 
Red  Riding  Hood,  47,  5 1 
Robber    Bridegroom,    37,    308, 

323 
Rumpelstiltskin,  422 
Separable    Soul,    118  seq.^   211, 

239 
Shoes  of  Swiftness,  218 
Sleeping  Beauty,  85 
Supernatural  Bride,  340,  342 
Swallow,  47,  455 
Swan    Maidens,    125,    162,   272, 

333,  342,  438 
Tasks  set  by  Captor,  205,  240, 

(392) 
Talking  Fish,  235 
Theft  from  Grave,  (114) 
Tom  Thumb,  47  seq.^  5 1 
Tom-Tit-Tot,  27 
Traitress,  58,  (246),  314,  467 
Transformation,  113  seq.^  (128) 

Combat,  164,  430 

of  Fugitives,  167  seq. 

of  objects,  171 
Transformed  Brothers,  81,   152, 

159 
Treacherous  Brothers,  211,  350 
True  Bride,  23,  45,  (67),  150,  i53, 

159 


INDEX 


497 


Cycles  of  tales — 

Truth    and    Falsehood,    12,   68, 

(78),  466 
Two  Brothers,  113,  127,  153 

Caskets,  191 
Ungrateful  Serpent,  (241) 
Unnatural  Mother,  112,  295 
Value  of  Salt,  362 
Watchers  by  Tomb,  367 
Water  of  Life,  52  seq.^  314,  353 
Wicked  Queen,  (141) 
World's  Beauty,  31,  34,  358 
Youngest   Son,    12,    17,   22,   47, 
106,  150,  217,  239,  271,  286, 
350  seq. 
Cycles,  mingling  of  story,  465 
savage  parallels  to,  458-9 


Damaras,  115 

Danae,  476 

Dances,  symbolic,  88 

Darien  tribes,  22,  39 

Darwinism,  primitive,  183,  248 

David,  132 

Dead  helping,  220,  232,  370,  376 

in  animals,  116 

in  trees,  115 
Deae  Matres,  (28) 
Death,  52,  85,  102-3 

contagion  of,  76 

savage  idea  of,  52,  82,  85,  89 
Dedication  of  child  to  divinity,  430 
De  Gubernatis,  14,  (246),  269,  432, 

448 
Delilah,  127 
Detnane^  288 
Demeter,  78,  90,  288 
Demons,    103,  105,  299,  303,  323, 

339,412 
Dennett,  R.  E.,  86,  247 
Destroyer  of  Hearts,  128 
Dev,  Devis,  Div,  85,  212,  290 
Devil,  423 
Dhuramoolin,  87 
Diana,  329 

Diffusion  of  folk-tales.     See  Folk- 
tales 
Dionysus,  90,  98,  (102),  301,  (461) 
Disease  of  Language,  51,  449 
Dismembered,  89  seq. 
Dismemberment  of  dead,  99,  100, 

106 
Divination,  209  seq.^  348 
Diviners,  207,  209 


Divining  Rod,  210 

Boghead^  140 

Dolls,  magic,  194,  197 

Donica^  103 

Don  Joseph  Pear^  226 

Dozon,  A.,  450,  467 

Dragon,  41,  140,  195,  381  seq. 

and  water,  404  seq. 

tongues  of,  (409) 
Drako,  136,  (407) 
Dravidians,  116 
Dress  tabu,  343  seq. 
Dyaks,    17,  29,^37,   loi,  115,  116, 
125,  263,  277,  300 


Ea,  78 

Eagle  fed  with  hero's  flesh,  239 

Earl  of  Mar's  Daughter^  162 

Earth  goddess,  303 

Easaidh  Ruadh^  135 

East  (f  the  Sun^  2i^7 

Edda,  31,  (loi) 

Efwa-eke,  123,  166 

Eggs  as  omens,  196 

Egyptians,  21,  37,  86,  99,  100,  102, 

107,  116,  128,249,335,348 
Elesa,  322 
Eleusinia,  88 
Ellis,  Major,  331 

Rev.  W.,  323 
Elton,  C,  371,  373,  375-6 
Embalming,  loi 
Emerson,  22 
Endophagy,  299 
English  folk-customs,  38,  100,  115, 

125 
Epics,  Babylonian,  11 

Esthonian,  70-1,  177,  203,  (375) 

Finnish,  91,  174,  203,  440,  443 

Hindu,  10,  83,  314 

Persian,  404 
Erskine,  J.  E.,  404 
Ematalunga,  123 
Eskimos,  29,  47,  101-2,  116,  (127), 

184,  200,  207,  (278),  300 
Esthonians,  25,  200 
Ethics  of  folk-tales,  12 
Ethiopians,  fountain  of,  66 
Etruscan  spells,  473 
Eurydice,  45 
Euryphilus,  316,  388 
Evil,  driving  out,  81 
Excalibur,  203 
Exophagy,  299 

2  I 


498 


INDEX 


Fabliaux,  39,  65 

Fairies,  22,  (28),  44,  (45),  83,  146, 
153-4,  (192),  290,  330,  339,  412, 
428,  452 

and  Witches,  (147),  (i95),  222-3 
Fairy  changeling,  428-9 

dance,  223 

eddy,  222 

paradise,  (315) 

wife,  46,  334,  34o 
Farrer,  J.  A.,  14 
Fates,  120 
Fatima,  358 
Feather-bird^  2P7 
Feathers,  magic,  211 
Fenris  wolf,  263 
Fergusson,  J.,  408 
Festivals,  folk,  (222) 

sex,  223 
Fetich,  child,  414,  430 

family,  321 

tabu,  320-1 
Fetichism,  10,  196,  199,  201,  209 
Fertility,  413 
Fians,  (17),  165 
Fie-fo-fum,  (305) 
Fingal,  152,  203,  280 
Fijians,  108,  204 
Finns,  196 
Firdausi,  404 
First-born,  414,  426 
Fletcher,  66 

Flinders-Petrie,  W.  M.,  (128) 
Folk-Songs.     See  Ballad 
Folk-Tales  and  Art,  2,  (477) 

and  myths,  432,  448,  452 

antiquity  of,  13,  476 

as  fiction,  4  seq.,  as  literature,  482, 
as  nature  myths,  246 

ballads,  482 

Christian  influence  on,  9,  19,  388, 
476 

classes  of,  450 

collections  of,  2 

conservatism  in  telling  479 

detritus  of  myths,  432 

diffusion  of,  by  gipsies,  475 

dissemination   and   diffusion  of, 
452,     463     seq.,     468,     472, 

475 
Eastern  and  Buddhist  origin  of, 

452 
earliest,  457 
ethics  of,  12 
first  told  in  verse,  479 


Folk-Tales  and  Art- 
incidents  of,  II,  453 

similar  in  various  cycles,  466 
seq. 
independent  invention  of  similar, 

459,  470 
in   epics  and  sacred  books,    10, 

279-80,  432,  452 
instances  of  borrowing,  468 
introductory  formulae  of,  478 
invented  in  many  centres,   454, 

464 
literary  collections  of,  13  seq. 
mythical  ending  of,  451,  469 
origin  of,  i,  5,  451 
primitive  life  in,  4,  7,  452 
recital  of,  2,  479-80 
style  of,  477 
used  by  teachers,  247,  252,  363 

to  inculcate  morals,  336 
various  strata  in,  3,  8,  9,  476 
African,  East,  281,  (285) 
Afghan,  367 
Aino,  81,  154,  163,  172,  202,  238, 

260,  262,  289,  297,  (372),  394, 

468,  477 
Albanian,   23,  31,    57,   137,  212, 

237,  358,  389,  410 
Annamese,  114 
Arab,  40,  59,  60,  119,  201,  237, 

356,  412 
Araucanian,  106 
Arawakan,  439 
Armenian,  234 
Ashanti,  216 
Asia  Minor,  151 
Australian,  12,  48-9,  81,  94,  129, 

154,  297,  340,  396,437,  444, 

478 
Austrian,  96,  215 
Avar,  270,  356,  388 
Balochi,  (82),  159 
Basque,  59,  62,  71,  98,  119,  133, 

152,  159,  171,  195,  202,  205, 

253,  279,  284,  307,  328,  356, 

362,  366,415-6,478 
Basuto,   24,    (43),   (46),   48,  112, 

120,  129,  172,  (178),  195,227, 

264,  267,  321,  360,  363,  (364), 

480 
Berber,  189,  211 
Bohemian,  49,  73,  158,  217,  237, 

242 
Borneo,  387 
Brazilian,  396 


INDEX 


499 


Folk-Tales— 

Breton,  41,  55,  57,  (73),  95,  97, 
119,  134,  150,  158,  168,  202, 
215,  237,  296,415,416 

Buddhist,  363,  (381) 

Burmese,  155 

Bushman,  94 

Cambodian,  311 

Carib,  91,  317 

Catalan,  98,  in,  151 

Celtic,  40,  41,  54,  61,  85,  134, 
151,  158,  193,  195,  270,284, 
307,315,  317,  329,  342,367, 
393,  417,  420,  477-8 

Chilian,  108,  232,  326 

Chinese,  212,  218,  244,  261,  277, 
289,  344,  389 

Corsican,  108,  232,  434 

Croatian,  270,  342 

Czech,  215,  309 

Dalmatian,  297 

Danish,  20,  41,  73,  190,  230,  241, 

327,  419 
Dardistan,  141,  270 
Dyak,  18,  36,  262,  267,  277,  285, 

333,  369,  394,  436,  481 

Eastern,  31,  40,  69,  121,  131,  155, 
157-8,  205,  212,  242,  262, 
314,  346,  355,  364,  422,  477 

Egyptian,  63, 113,  127, 198,  (281), 
362,  433 

English,  22,  32,  85,  (151),  214, 
256,  296 

Eskimo,  12,  126,  160,  163,  179, 
244-5,  261,  263-5,  267,  272, 
289,  292,  295,  468,  479,  481 

Esthonian,  (24),  70-1,  (109),  154, 
169,  177,  198,203,215,(219), 
220,  256,  (281),  307,  311,331, 
35  5, 360, 368, 386, 390, 405, 420 

Fijian,  437 

Finnish,  30, 40, 45,  71-2, 91,  (103), 
109,  174,  177,  203,  232,  418, 
421,  440 

Flemish,  270 

French,  in,  212,  232,  312,  389, 

392,  477 
Gaelic,  30,   31,   35,  42,  98,    109, 

165,  171,  232-3,  317 
Georgian,  109,  217,  290 
German,    17,   30,   40-1,   96,  in, 

119,  135,  150,  158-9,  169, 
1 95,  (2 1 4),  2 1 7,  218,230,  240, 
270,282,  307,  309,  311,328, 
352,  420 


Folk-Tales — 
Greek,    ancient,    (82),    93,    120, 
136,  150,  179,  189,  295,  325, 

387,  389,  393 
modern,  32,  53,  55-6,  62,  -Ji, 
114,  119,  121,  127,  153, 
157,  159,  201,  205,  211, 
216,  241,  254,  280,  285, 
290,  293,  297,  298,  326, 
357,  362,  410,  418 
Guiana,  155,  160,  (162),  245,  258, 

342 
Gypsy,  238,411 
Hebrew,  127 
Hessian,  213,  308 
Hindu,  40,  69,  74,  83,  84,  94,  109, 
114,  122,  138,  141,  151,  174, 
192,  197,  202,  205,  214,  218, 

226,  232,  237,  255,  267,  281, 
291,  298,  327,  353,  367,  372, 
390,  394,  411,  413 

Hottentot,  48,  129,  163,  170,  189, 

244,  268 
Hungarian.     See  Magyar 
Icelandic,  28,  32,  106,  154,  287 
Irish,  31,  42,  103,  163,  172,  179, 

215,  317,  344,  376 

Italian,  24,  53,  55,  58,  60,  96,  108, 
110,(114),  137,  142,  151,158, 
176,  189,196-7,  214,218,226, 
232,  237, 238,  240,  254-5,  270, 
284,  308,  326-8,  416,  469,  477 

Jaina,  45 

Japanese,  18,  (23),  84,  131,  (191), 
(219),  235,  243,  270,  (285), 
290,  326,  333,  386 

Kabyle,  59,  109,  352,  383,  391 

Kafir,  6,  46,  49,  (93),  120,  172, 
179,  213,  220,  234,  256-7, 
(265),  (277),  283,  288,  292, 
298,  321,  327-8,  340,  362-3, 
378,  421,  456 

Kalmuk,  217-8,  220 

Kashmiri,  40,  60,  67,  69,  70,  83, 
85,  95,  121,  138-9,  141,  159, 
174,  178,  211,  214,  218,220, 

227,  232,  255,  313,  364,  367, 
390,  405 

Khyoungtha,  292 
Kirghiz,  69,  176,  281,  354 
Korean,  202,  (238) 
Kuki,  176 

Kumaun,  139,  215,  311,  412 
Lapp,    131,    138,   235,   281,  3n, 
421 


500 


INDEX 


Folk-Tales— 

Lithuanian,  31,  53,  72,  ii9j2I5, 

254,  308,  328 
Lorraine,   32,  57,  60,  63,  68,  84, 

96,   98,   134,    151,   169,   173, 

205,  215,  239,  261,  (269),  270, 

309,  327,  362,  370,  380,  415-6, 

434 
Lusatian,  270 
Magyar,  26,  40,  61,  65,  67-8,  83, 

140,(151),  159,167,  171,194, 

202,  215,  225,  235,  242,  254, 

269,  283,  295,  350  (369),  380, 

382,411,419,478 
Malagasy,  93,  131,  162,  175,  177, 

194,  232,  243,  250,  267,  285, 

293,  296,  329,  340,  352,  354, 

357-9,  U72),  477 
Malay,  297,  438 
Maori,  63,  80,  94,  178,  366,  398, 

478 
Melanesian,  120,  228,  232,  (261), 

282,   (318),   321,   333,  (394), 

436,  438,  478 
Mmgrelian,  36,  53,  367 
Mongol,   40,    54,    119,    122,  133, 

159,  227,  238,  285,  297,  393, 

405,  439 
Negro,  I,  5,6,34,36,72,82,  III, 
178,  (191),  217,  229,245,260, 
268,  272,  277,  293,  298,  321, 
329,i-^$r.,  339,  341,  348,(361), 
371,383,386,388,456,468-9, 
481 
New  Caledonian,  13,  (192) 
New  Guinea,  259,  269,  344,  394, 

455 

Norman,  332 

Norse,  23,  30,  31,  40,  58,  72,  96, 
103,  135,  164,  (171),  215,  226, 
233,255,285,291,307-8,311, 
342,  352,  365,  371,  389,  392 

Pamir,  141 

Persian,   62,  140,  155,  158,  281, 

334,  355,  391 
Peruvian,  352 
Picardy,  270 
Pisan,  57,  240,  308 
Polish,  45,  III,  132,  168,  193,215, 

254,  418 
Polynesian,  42,   70,  80,  93,   160, 

162,  236,  290,  438,  478 
Pomeranian,  344 
Portuguese,  32,    in,  (151),  168, 

254,  (388),  468 


Folk-Tales— 

Red  Indian,  12,  18,  22,  39,  65, 
70,  72,  84,  91-2,  95,  102,  105, 
126,  132,  142,  158,  160,  163, 
166,  169,  177,  191,  214,  221, 
230-1,  236,  243,  245,  258, 
261-3,  265,  267-8,  271,  274-5, 
281,  286,  (289),  290, 297,  320, 
332,  358,  379,  386,  391,  394, 
396,  439-40,  444,  455-6,  460, 
468-9 

Romagnan,  67,  156 

Roman,  120 

Roumanian,  63,  90,  (93),  311,  390, 
478 

Russian,  (23),  24,  30-1,  35,  42,45, 
52,  55,  58,  71,  78,  91,  95-6, 
103,  108-9,  no,  113,  119, 120, 
132,  136,  150,  168,  173,  176, 
191,  195,197,205,214,232-3, 
235,  237,  257,  270,  281,  285, 
294,  313,  315,  328,  344,  346, 
350,369,420,435,451 

Samoan,  81,  147,  173,  295,  437     . 

Samoyede,  130,  133,  176 

Scots,  27,  44-5,  104,  109,  206, 
233,  240,  296,  328,  354, 
402 

Servian,  40,  57,  108-9,  126,  137, 
185,  (211),  232,   270,    312-3, 

356,  365,  (388),  (451) 
Siamese,  131,  174,  292 
Siberian,  365 
Sicilian,  53,  in,    119,  159,    169, 

190,  193,  254,  280,  288,  359, 
422 

Slavonic,  41,  72-3,  212,  242,  248, 

477 
Spanish,  63,  in,  121,  270,  468 
Suabian,  96,  119,  308-9 
Sumatran,  127 
Swahili,  131,  226,  236,  312,  (314), 

352,  412,  468,  477 
Swedish,  41,  45,  53,  150-1,    169, 

191,  194,  197,  226,  233,  270, 
284,  296,  309,  326-7,  (353), 
420-1 

Swiss,  392 
Syriac,  215,  351,  412 
Tamil,  (74),  165,  243 
Tartar,  49,  139,  170 
Tasmanian,  81 
Thuringian,  427 
Transylvanian,  in,  232 
Turkish,  355,  388 


INDEX 


501 


Folk-Tales— 

Tuscan,  30,  95,  (104),  iii,  137, 
294,  327,411,416 

Tyrolese,  63,  67,  98,  iii,  119, 
169,  173,  215,  254,  270,  309- 
10 

Uganda,  194,227,(411) 

Venetian,  411 

Wallachian,  308 

Welsh,  27,  142,  165,  290,  317,  334 

Wend,  308 

Yaos,  49,  III 

Zanzibar,  112 

Zulu,  25,  112,  129,  234 
Folk- Songs.     See  Ballads 
Fomor6,  204,  426 

Food  of  dead  and    of   fairyland, 
(178) 

forbidden,  316 

supply  by  magical  methods,  219 
Fortunatus^  219 
Foundation,  sacrifice  at,  427 
Fountain  of  Youth,  65 
Fox-demon,  156 

women,  261 
France,   folk-lore  of,  38,  100,  125, 

373 
Frazer,  J.  G.,  14,  89,  99,  143,  146, 

426 
Fuji  Yama,  66 
Fuller,  224 
Fylfot,  474 

Galgen-mannlein,  200 

Ganviviris  and  Ro  Sont,  228-9 

Gaster,  Dr,  454 

Genie,  201,  214 

Genius,  147,  250 

German  folk-lore,  38,  76,  125,  200, 

303,  373,  376 
George  of  Cappadocia,  38 1 

of  Nicomedia,  381 
Ghosts    in  folk- tales,   (43),    102-3, 
III,  (114),  (147),  (195X  (200) 

in  stones,  (156) 

in  trees,  115 
Ghost-wife,  333 
Giant,  19,  133  seq.,  148,  (157),   195, 

289 
Gibbon,  379,  381 
Gilgames,  329 
Gipsies,  470,  (475) 
Girdle,  346 
Giviok,  289 
Glaucus,  (82) 


Glooskap,  70,  95,  142,  181,  281 
Gods,  abode  of,  442,  447 
and  goddesses  as  demons,  etc., 

303,  423,  452 
jealous  of  men,  447 
with  animal  form,  (258),  260,  323 
Goethe,  296 
Goibniu,  65 
Golden  Bird,  233 
Gomme,  G.  L.,  14,  375 
Gram,  (203) 
Greek  folk-lore,  37,  65,  76-7,  (97), 

161,  198,  207,   290,   301,   319, 

346,  348,  426 
Greenland,  181 
Green  well,  Canon,  107 
Green  Bird,  205 
Grey  N orris,  I'ji,  344 
Grimm,  2,  17,  31,  35,  85,  153,  179, 

217,  233,  282,  296,  307,  328,  384 
Grinnell,  J.  B.,  455 
Gronw,  143 
Guardian  spirit,  144,  147,  199,  250, 

320 
Guatemalans,  250 
Guiana,  39,  196,  206-7,  300,  345 
Guppy,  H.  B.,  224 
Gumey,  E.,  (43),  47 
Gwion,  165 

Hagiology,  97,  199 
Hahn,  J.  G.  von,  14,  127 
Hair,  126,  144,  193,  213,  343 

floating  down  stream,  (127),  369 

magic  animals',  211 

speaking,  193 

strength  in,  143 

string,  126 

witch's,  (157) 
Half -Iron,  137 
Hallucinations,  185-6,  (315) 
Hamedben  Ceggad,  211 
Handsome  Paul,  167 
Hansel  and  Grethel,  i'^t. 
Hanuman,  83,  131 
Haoma,  65 
Hapai,  346 
Harald,  392 
Harischandra,  413 
Hartland,  S.,  119,  272,  319,  454 
Heart  as  seat  of  life,  128 

eaten  by  witches,  146 
Hearth-place,  373,  375 
Heaven  and  earth,  myth,  441 
Hebrew  folk-lore,  74,  132 


502 


INDEX 


Hedgehog,  cooking,  470 

Heimdal,  203 

Hera,  90  • 

Hercules,  387,  408 

Hermes,  90 

Hermodr,  (221) 

Herodotus,  66,  267,  374 

Hesione,  387,  408 

Hesperides,  408 

Hindu  folk-lore,  39,  54,  65-6,  (72), 
76,  102,  (103),  116,  162,  198, 
201,  (258),  266,  276,  (277),  294, 
301,  318,  337 

Hinernoa  and  Tutane,  366 

Hippomenes,  177 

History  of  Nassar,  140,  155,    334, 

391 
Hitopadesa,  314 
Hoel,  laws  of,  373 
Home,  D.  D.,  224 
Homer,  10,  150 
Hop  o'  my  Thumb,  354 
Horse,  magic,  173,  236,  323 
Hottentots,  247 
Hovas,  102,  113 
Huldre  folk,  291 
Hun,  Hungar,  300 
Hungarians,  373 
Husband  and  Wife,  20,  335  seq. 
Hymir,  (143) 
Hypnotism,  32,  85,  88,  (186),  208, 

333 
Hyperaesthesia,  210 

Icelandic  folk-lore,  144,  294 

Idhunn's  apples,  65 

Ifara,  177 

Igdrasil,  443 

Ikutama,  326 

Images  buried  with  dead,  198 

of  gods,  197,  323 

reflected,  407 

replacing  human  sacrifices,  198 

speaking,  198 
Im  Thurn,  E.  F.,  38 
Inanimate  objects,  188  seq. 
Inao,  124 
Incanti,  392 

Incidents  of  folk-tales,  11,  16,155, 
454,  457 

savage  parallels  to,  457-8 

similar,  in  various  cycles,  466 
India  as  centre  of  diffusion,  452 
Indra,  (72),  407 
Ine,  162 


hie  and  Tuna,  260 

Infanticide,  429 

Inheritance,  in  law  and  custom,  373 

Initiation  rites,  87,  107,  144,  146, 
318,  380,  460 

Intellectual  and  imaginative  pro- 
ductions, immortality  of,  477 

Invisibility,  221 

Iphicles,  (78) 

Iron,  fear  of,  204,  339 

Irrational  ideas  in  folk-tales,  3  seq., 
.  278,  475 

Irvingites,  224 

Ishtar,  78,  329 

I  sis,  90 

Isonokami's  sword,  204 

Italian  folk-lore,  125,  186,  222 

Jack  and  the  Beanstalk,  433 

Jacobs,  J.,  480 

Jacottet,  E.,  360,  480 

Jade  axes,  472 

Jahn,  Dr,  14 

Japanese  folk-lore,  66,  81,  156,  184, 

197-8,    203-4,   (258),  .261,  264, 

290 
Jason,  10,  179 
Java,  263 
Jean  d' Arras,  329 
Jenik,  237 

Jevons,  F.  B.,  336,  349 
Jewel,  magic,  201,  214 
Johnson,  R.,  106 
Johnston,  wSir  H.,  11,  468 
Jonah,  50 

Jones,  Rev.  W.  H.,  350 
Joseph,  127 
Joyeuse,  204 
Jumala,  174 

Jiingsten-recht,  372  seq. 
Juniper  Tree,  The,  296 
Jupiter  Ly casus,  316 
Jurupari  pipes,  317,  322 
Juveignerie,  372  seq. 

Kafirs,  39,  116,  221,  318,  337,  378 

Kalangs,  264 

Kalevala,  10,  30,  31,  91,  174,  177, 

203,  440,  443 
Kalevide,  10 

Kalevipoeg,  70-1,  177,  203,  (375) 
Kali,  413 
Kalkagari,  89 
Kanteletar,  174 


INDEX 


503 


Karens,  147,  289,  406 
Kashmiri,  39 
Kathakoga,  157,  413 
Katha  Sarit  Sagara,  197 
Kavirondo,  345 
Keane,  A.  H.,  471 
Keats,  256,  (257) 
Kempion,  257 
Khasi  hill  tribes,  196 
Khonds,  426 
Kings  in  folk-tales,  16 

animal,  245 
King  Ye  I  low  hammer,  225 
King's  child  as  sacrifice,  426 
Kingsley,  Miss,  147,  341,  430 
Kintu,  194 
Kirk,  Rev.  R.,  44 
Ko-ji-ki,  II,  84,  172,  204,  243,  326, 

333)  386 
Koshchei,  91,  120,  136,  313 
Kovavelsky,  M.,  336 
Kullervo,  203 
Kumaun,  335 


Lady  Godiva,  319 

La  Fontaine,  no 

Laidly  Worm,  (151) 

Laksmana,  141 

Lamia,  256-7 

Lamiae,  290,  (294),  389 

Lang,  A.,  14,  49,  (171),  (174),  (210), 

336,  346,  370,  464 
Language  of  animals,  41 
Laomedon,  387 
Lapps,  (102),   117,  198,  (201),  318, 

322 
Legends,  mediaeval,  96 
Leland,  C.  G.,  170,  320,  461,  481 
Lemminkainen,  91,  177 
Leopard,  human,  105 
Levitation,  224 
Life-hair,  126 

restoration  to,  80,  230 

separable,  123  seq. 

token,  118 

tree,  144 
Limbang,  369 
Limbs  restored,  67 
Lip  ornament,  470 
Lithuanians,  403 
Little  Peachling,  235 
Littleton,  374 
Livonians,  403 
Livy,  38 


Llew,  143 

Loki,  263,  468 

Lonnrott,  468 

Lord  of  Underworld,  326 

Peter,  226 
Lorraine,  21 
Lox,  91,  468 
Lucky  stone,  etc.,  202 
Lusifee,  169 


Mabinogion,  id,  142 
Macdonald,  Rev.  J.,  86 
Magic,  19,  32,  34,  54,  84,  99, 107  seq., 
206,  210,  212  seq.,  276,  323,  343, 

345,  473 

articles  inherited,  376 

mimetic,  214,  219,  348 

sympathetic,  118,  121,  125,  144, 
198,  (370) 
Maiden  stolen,  21 
Mainetd,  372  seq. 
Mairavana,  141 
Malagasy  folk-lore,  37,  83,  198,  267, 

406 
Malaise,  160 
Malay  folk-lore,  21,  39,  (103),  125, 

147,  161,  456,  472 
Malbrouk,  133,  204,  415 
Mally  Whuppie,  (285),  354 
Malsumsis,  142 
Manabush,  175,  230,  380,  460 
Manchuria,  335 
Mandeville,  66 
Mandrake,  200,  376 
Manitou,  146,  198-9,  209,  230,  249- 

250 
Manorial  right,  373 
Maol  a  Chliobain,  284 
Maori      folk-lore,     31,     11 1,     125, 

470      . 
Mdrchen  and  Saga,  450 
Maria  MorevTia,  313 
Marquesas  Islands,  300 
Marriage,  17,  20,  25,  98,  336 

with  beasts,  233 
Mars,  121 
Maspero,  G.,  335 
Mathab  Mathonwy,  142 
Matiamoo,  209 
Matriarchate,  18,  428 
Maui,  50,  64,  93,  160,  366 
Mavunga,  330,  382 
Max  Miiller,  14,  269,  432,  452 
Medea,  10,  93,  179 


504 


INDEX 


Medicine-man,  19,  32,  37,  85-6,  107, 
133,  146,  148,  153,  162,  177, 
184-5  ^^^'i  200,  206,  208-10, 
222-4,  (303),  316,  318,  333,  392, 

413,  430 
of  life,  83 
Mediums,  209,  224 
Medusa,  382 
Melampus,  78 
Melanesian  folk-lore,  100,  124,  181, 

196,  210,  404,  (407),  426,  456 
Meleager,  120 
Melusina,  46,  257,  329 
Men,  rites  of  women  tabu  to,  318 
Menelaus,  166 
Menomini  Indians,  175,  209,   230, 

460,  481 
Mentone,  100 
Merchant  of  Venice^  (191) 
Mermaid,  (145),  (169),  275,  345 
Merodach,  408 
Metempsychosis,  166 
Mexican  folk-lore,  76,  88,  128,  198, 

348,  403 
Michabo,  408 
Micron esians,  loi 
Midgard  serpent,  263 
Migration  of  peoples,  472 
MikumwisSj  391 
Minos,  126,  397 
Minotaur,  263,  397 
Miracles,  97,  224 

Mirror  divination,  34  seq.,  123,  384 
Miru,  290,  304 
Mithraism,  88 

Mohammed  the  Languid,  236 
Mohammedanism,  66,  97,  116,  198, 

(215) 
Mongols,  29,  39,  107,  275,  374 
Monkey,  stories  of,  131 
Monsters,  prehistoric,  395 
Mons  Tro,  241 
Montaigne,  (157) 
Moors,  300 
Morgan  le  Fay,  120 
Morocco,  335 
Mortuary  columns,  470 
Moses,  66 
Mosimodi,  \ii 

Mother,  descent  through,  376 
Mother-in-law,  338 
Mountain  as  world  of  dead  or  of 

gods,  442 
Mugain,  263 
Mulieres  sub-introductas,  379 


Mullyan,  297 

Mummification,  99,  102,  128 
Mycenaean  art,  474-6 
Myers,  F.  W.  H.,  208 
Mysteries,  88,  266,  317,  323,  380 
Myth  and  Marchen,  452 

story  germs,  79,  448,  452 

of  sun  catching,  439 
Mythic  explanation  of  things,  181, 

436,  440 
Mythological  school,  342,  432,  452 
Mythologies,  11,  15,  65,  166 
Myths,  Aino,  (102),  248 

Andaman,  443 

Ashanti,  (191) 

Australian,  87,  94,  182,  337,  444-6 

Babylonian,  64,  78,  (102),  329,  408 

Borneo,  442 

Bushman,  50,  94 

Celtic,  65,  160,  263 

Chinese,  83,  441 

Cingalese,  316 

Egyptian,  90,  160,  407,  441,  448 

Eskimo,  336,  445 

Esthonian,  (102) 

Finnish,  445 

Greek,  49,  65,  (82),  90,  (97),  (102), 
126,  149,  160,  166,  221,  260, 
263,  266,  288,  329,  387-8,  397, 
408,  441-2,  (461) 

Guiana,  50,  443,  445 

Hindu,  50,  65,  (102),  160,  166, 
407,  441 

Japanese,  266,  441 

Kirghiz,  275 

Lithuanian,  64 

Malay,  50,  83 

Maori,  346 

Melanesian,  51 

Mexican,  443 

Mongol,  64,  274 

Negro,  203,  275,  448 

Persian,  65 

Polynesian,  50,  (59),  66,  70,  80, 
83,  93»  160,  260,  266,  276, 
304,  366,  441 

Red  Indian,  50,  (102),  123,  142, 
175,  (191),  230,  274-5,  316, 
380,407,440-1,446,460 

Roman,  (97) 

Samoan,  50,  81,  173,  401 

S.  American,  337 

Scandinavian,  65,  83,  (102),  142, 
(143),  160,  263,  408 

Semitic,  83,  316,  442 


INDEX 


505 


Myths,  Tibetan,  (275) 
Tongan,  316 
chanted,  481 
depicted,  (477) 

Nagas,  266 

Nagual,  146,  250 

Naiad,  187 

Nail  clippings,  144,  213,  343 

Nakedness  in  folk-custom,  318,  336 

Name,  26,  220,  337,  343 

Nassau,  Dr.,  i,  (37),  217,  318,  322, 
330,  469 

Natal,  209 

Nectar,  65 

Negro  folk-lore,  i,  33,  36,  88,  105, 
117,  123,  125,  146-7,  184,  196, 
199,  210,  247,  249-50,  300,  318, 
403,  427,  430j  470 

Negroes  of  America,  161 

Neolithic  burials,  98  se^. 

Neoplatonists,  224 

Nephthys,  90 

Neptune,  387 

Nereid,  153,  241,  343 

New  Britain,  318 

Guinea,  86,  100,  (106),  161,  182, 

207,  338,  345 
Zealand,  86,  100,  116,  209 

Ngaru^  304 

Nisus,  126 

Njembe  society,  318 

Norka,  350 

Noum,  127 

vNovelist,  methods  of  primitive,  5, 
-]-],  148,  179,  187,  251,  319  J^^-, 
323-4,  341,  349,  377,  385,  424, 

457,  479 
Nufoers,  335 
Nzambi,  245 

Oblivion    Incident,    167,     171, 

(173),  332,  338 
Odm,  (203) 

Odysseus,  150,  279  seq. 
Ogier  the  Dane,  (120) 
Ogma,  204 
Ogre,  19,  21,  135,  148,  299,  300-1, 

3^1,  452 
Okikurumi,  81,  172 
Oni,  290 

Orgiastic  rites,  5,  (223),  319 
Orphic  myth,  (102) 
Ornai,  204 
O  sella,  190 


Osiris,  90,  (93),  98,  113 
Ossian,  151,  315 
Ovid,  187 

Pacarissa,  250 
Packet,  magic,  (155) 
Palaeolithic  art,  476,  (477) 

burials,  100,  106 
Panchatantra,  131,  212,  452 
Pandora,  316 
Panj  Phul,  121 
Paracelsus,  97 
Parker,  Mrs,  343 
Parsis,  loi 
Pasiphae,  263 
Passover,  (189) 
Patriarchate,  376 
Pausanias,  316,  393 
Pawnees,  39 

Peasant  folk-lore,  25,  38,  TJ,  102, 
117,  125,  144,  184-5,  196,  200, 
207,  212,  222,  428,  476 
Pelew  Islands,  337 
Pelias,  93 

Pelion  and  Ossa,  442 
Pelops,  288 
Penda,  260 

Pentamerone,  14, 177,  (226),  326,416 
Peppino,  328 

Perrault,  14,  no,  225,  253 
Persephone,  78,  (191) 
Perseus,  203,  408 
Persians,  37,  65-6,  335 
Personality,  alternating,  333 

savage  idea  of,  181-3 
Peruvians,  76,  198,  250,  403,  426 
Petitot,  92 

Petrifaction,  156,  206 
Phantasms,  43 
Philippines,  100,  115 
Philostratus,  (257) 
Phorloe,  387 
Pictographs,  (477) 
Pzvi  a?id  Kabo,  (192) 
Placenta,  144 

Plant,  girl  emerging  from,  1 14 
Plants,  magic,  54,  83 
Pleistocene  man,  457 

time,  471 
Plutarch,  317,  336,  403 
Poetry,  primitive,  480 
Pohjola,  177 
Poland,  25 
Pointing  sticks,  206 
Polyandry,  (131) 

2  I  2 


506 


INDEX 


Polydorus,  115 

Polygamy,  9,  (138) 

Polyidus,  (82) 

Polynesians,   37,   39,  66,  116,  125, 

183,  (194),  290,  338,  443 
Polyphemus,  10,  279,  476 
Pondoland,  223 
Poseidon,  126 
Potions,  magic,  222 
Prehistoric  graves,  204,  472 

life,  399 
Pressina,  329 
Prester  John,  374 
Priestesses,  303 
Priests,  86,  207,  (303),  323,  348 
Primogeniture,  372,  377 
Prince  Csihan,  225 

Hatt,  326,  422  (424) 

Mirko,  202 

Vildering,  419 

Wolf,  327 
Princess  as   sacrificial  victim,  400 

seg. 
Prior,  162 
Procne,  288 
Promiscuity,  376 
Proteus,  166 
Proverbs,  473 
Psychic  life  of  man,  sameness  of, 

456,  460,  463,  470-1 
Psychical  Research  Society,  208 
Psychology,  118,  (128),  149,  180 

of  saints,  224 
Pterelaus,  126 

Pulowech  the  Partridge,  344 
Punchkin,  109,  138 
Puppets,  magic,  197,  199,  200,  209 
Puruvaras,  336 
Pygmalion,  198 

Qat,  51,  438 
Quetzalcoatl,  443 

Ra,  407 

Rabbit,  Master,  169,  387 

Raiko,  290 

Rain,  producing,  219  seq. 

Raja  Siung,  297 

Rakshasa,  74,  138,  205 

Rakshasi,  67,  94,  (138),  148,  (162), 

291,  (297),  301 
Ralston,  W.  R.  S.,  435 
Rama,  131,  141 
Ramayana,  83,  221 
Raskin  Coatie,  109 


Rata,  236 

Raven,  (78) 

Reade,  W.,  123,  209,  318 

Red  Bull  o'  Norroway,  328 

Red  E tin,  206 

Red  Indians,  29,  32,  37,  39,  66,  83, 
86,  88,  100-2,  107,  116,  128, 
161,  181-3,  186,  196,  198,  204, 
207,  209,  247,  249,  274,  337-8, 
426,  470- 1 

Red  Indian  tales  derived  from 
Norse,  461,  468 

Reinach,  S.,  (125) 

Reincarnation,    in,    115-6,    (128), 

234,  363,  (381) 
Relics,  198 
Reptiles  and  water,  406 

sacrifice  to,  403 
Rider  of  Grianaig,  54 
Ring,  magic,  201 

speaking,  195,  214,  280 
Rink,  H.,  6,  468 
Ripley,  W.,  104 
Ritual,  Australian,  88  ;  Babylonian, 

78  ;  Dyak,  88  ;  Egyptian,  98  ; 

Greek,  98  ;  Jewish,  (189) ;  Red 

Indian,  88 
Rocks,  clashing,  59 
Roland,  203 
Rolf,  179 
Romans,  37,  76,  (97),  i47,  161,  198, 

250,  319,  348 
Romilly,  H.  H.,  (106),  345,  455 
Romulus,  (277) 
Rongo,  194 

Rooney  and  the  Seal,  163 
Rose  of  Bakawali,  62,  157 
Roumania,  25,  38 
Rupe,  162 
Russian  folk-lore,  125,  146,  258,  267, 

294,  373 
Rhythmic  chants,  480 

Sabazios,  266 

Sabbat,  witch,  197,  222-3,  3^9 
Sacred    books — Babylonian,     10  ; 
Egyptian,  (128) ;  Greek,  166  ; 
Hindu,  166,  336, 413 ;  Japanese, 
11,84,  166,  172,  204,  243,  326, 
333,  386  ;  Norse,  (loi) 
things,  316 
Sacrifice,  lo,  348 
by  fairy  or  witch,  428-9 
foundation,  427 
human,  303, 399  seq.,  403, 424  seq. 


INDEX 


507 


Sacrifice,  mock,  429 

of  children,  410,  423,  425 

of  twins,  414 

of  virginity,  (410) 

propitiatory,  423 

rationale  of,  397 

removal  of  barrenness  by,  4 1 3 

to  reptiles,  403 

to  water  divinities,  405,  423 
Sagas,  Algonquin,  481  ;  Arthurian, 
10 ;  Ossianic,  10 

and  Mdrchen^  45 1 
Saints,  84,  95,  97,  215,  224 

legends   of,   95-7,  187,  224,  319, 
381,  388,  392 
Saliva,  193 

Samoans,  loi,  115,  179,  196,  426 
Samoyedes,  123 
Samson,  127,  145 
Sanchoniathon,  401 
Santals,  115 

Savage  Island,  100,  300 
Savage  folk-tale  parallels,  457-8 
Savages  and  X  region,  208 
Saxons,  loi 
Scales,  magic,  212 
Scandinavian  folk-lore,  28, 65, 102-3, 
157,    200,   222,   393,  401,  426, 

443 
Scheme  of  the  work,  5 1 
Scott,  Sir  W.,  44 
Scythians,  204 
Sea  divinity,  423 

maiden,  126,  135,  417,  423 
Secret  societies,  317-8 
Semites,  249,  401,  425 
Senart,  247 

Sending,  magic,  (155),  200 
Senkepeng^  264 
Serpent.     See  Snake 
Servians,  (103),  337 
Set,  90 

Sex,  change  of,  (157) 
Shah  Mannsur,  140 
Shakespeare,  29 
Shoes  of  swiftness,  221 
Siam,  198 

Siati  and  PuapcE^  173 
Siberians,  210 
Siegfried,  204 
Sight  restored,  67 
Si  Jura,  436 

Sikulume,  120,  172,  213,  283 
Silvia,  120 
Sina,  147 


Sinbad,  281 

Sinend,  317 

Singhpos,  374 

Singorra,  194,  197 

Siva,  202 

Six  Swans,  The,  (153) 

Skin,  145,  156,  163,  182,  276,  (328), 

347-8 
Slavs,  104 
Sleep,  Id 

magic,  30  seq.,  (194) 

thorn,  85 
Sleeping  beauties,  85 
Slipper,  magic,  212,  (369) 
Snake,  116,  212,  258 

descent  from,  266,  275 

genius  as,  250 

lovers,  256  seq.,  264 

race  under  water,  (258) 

sacrifice  to,  403 

wisdom  of,  41 

see  Dragon 
Snee  witchen,  (358) 
Snow-White  Rose-Red,  193 
Snuff-box,  magic,  202 
Solomon,  66 

Islands,  116,  337 
Solidarity,  human  and  animal,  181 
Soma,  65 

Sorcerer.     See  Medicine-man 
Soul,  bush,  250 

eaten  by  witches,  146 

in  bone,  spine,  etc.,  (93),  1 1 1 

leaving  body,  143,  146 

placed  in  safety,  143 

separable,  118  seq.,  250 

several  kinds  of,   in  one   body, 

147 

sorcerer  and,  133,  146 

see  Spirit 
Southey,  (103) 
Spine,  seat  of  life,  (93),  1 1 1 
Spirit,  controlling,  201 

evil,  339,  429 

leaving  body,  146,  181 

of  well,  (318) 

recalling,  207 

underground,  207 

see    Ancestor ;     Reincarnation  ; 
Soul 
Statue,  living,  198 
Stoll,  Dr,  33 
Stone  age,  339 

shirt,  23,  458 

weapons,  456 


508 


INDEX 


Storm  myths,  222 
Story  germs,  79,  452,  457 
Straparola,  14 
Strigla,  294 
Struwelpeter,  336 
Subconscious  self,  208,  210 
Suhman,  199 
Sulta?t  Darai,  226 
Sumatra,  86 
Sun-god,  (410) 

impregnation  by,  (410) 

myths,  222 
Sunshine,  producing,  219 
Svastika,  474 
Swahilis,  41 

Swan- maidens,  162,  343  seq. 
Swiftness,  miraculous,  222 
Sword  of  chastity,  55 

magic,  202 
Symbols,  diffusion  of,  474 


Table,  magic,  214,  219 

Tabu,  6,  12,  26,  46,  76,  (112),  124, 

(171),  261,  306  seq.,  325  seq. 
Tahitians,  196 
Tajul-Muluk,  157,  205,  212 
Takinga,  285 
Talamaur,  (456) 
Taliesin,  165 

Talisman,  121,  155,  201,  231,  239 
Tamaniu,  124 
Tammuz,  78 
Tane,  66,  70 
Tangaroa,  80,  93 
Taoism,  86,  207 
Tartaro,  279,  301,  374 
Tasmanians,  loi,  124,  (277) 
Taunton  Dene  Manor,  373 
Tawhaki,  347,  438 
Tchuds,  374 
Telepathy,  (168),  208 
Telikinesis,  208 
Temples,  tabued,  316-7 
Tennyson,  401 
Tent,  magic,  (220) 
Tereus,  288 
Tethra,  sword  of,  204 
Teutons,  28,  184 
Theal,  G.  M.,  455 
Thesmophoria,  319 
Thor,  (loi),  (143),  408 
Thyestes,  288 
Tiamat,  408 
Tibetans,  29 


Tidying    up    hut    incident,    (261), 

(331) 
Timbuctoo,  335 
Tipperahs,  335 
Tirawa,  245 
Tirnan'Og,  315 
Titans,  90 
Todas,  337 
Tona,  250 
Tongans,  196 
Torres  Straits,  100 
Totemism,  88,    144,  146,  181,  183, 
249,  272-4,  339-40 

survivals  of,  249 
Totem,  ceremonies,  348,  398 

clan,  146,  249,  274 

divinities,  348 

myths,  274 

personal,  146,  248 

posts,  470 

rock  drawings,  316 

sacrament,  42,  299 
"Towers  of  silence,"  loi 
Transformation,  453,  455 

as  punishment,  150,  154 

by  bathing,  157 

by  drinking,  159,  186 

by  eating,  158,  186   ■ 

by  sorcerer,  149  seq.,    186,  273^ 

327 

by  talisman,  155 

cause  of  belief  in,  181  seq. 

combat,  164 

of  divinities  and  spirits,  160,  181 

of  fugitives,  167,  180 

of  objects,  171,  180 

of  sex,  (157) 

self,  160 

to  stone,  (156) 

through  magic,  162 
Transmigration,  11 5-6,  251,  453 
Transylvania,  20,  318,  374 
Tree  as  life  token,  124 

birth,  124  seq. 

bleeding,  115 

burial,  loi,  (358) 

growing  from  body,  (115),  232 

healing  by,  (125) 

marriage,  276 

of  life,  83 

spirits  in,  115,  (253),  (344) 

world,  443 

worship,  (128),  191,  193 
Troll,  294 
Tschm-timani,  201 


INDEX 


509 


Tulisa,  328 

Turanians,  301 

Turks,  66 

Turo,  174 

Twelve  Brothers^  The,  153 

Two  Brothers,  The,  476 

Tylor,  Dr,  50,  (66),  188,  396,  471 

Typho,  90 

Twins,  folk-lore  of,  (393),  414 

Uganda,  ii 

Ui  and  Luamae,  402 

Ulysses,  203 

Underworld,  9,  (44),   71,   78,    160, 

172,  177-8,  204,  207,  239,  290, 

326,  422 
.   descent  to,  438 
Unnatural  lusts,  277 
Urvasi,  336 
Uvengwa,  105 
Uzzah,  316 

Vainamoinen,  440,  443 
Vampires,  (25),  102-3,  130,  (195) 
Vasilissa  the  Fair,  197 


Vedas, 


)36,  476 


Vergil,  96 
Vijara  Nada,  66 
Vikramaditya,  166 
Viravara,  422 
Virgin  Mary,  319,  430 
Voguls,  317 
Volsunga  Saga,  41 
Voodoo,  103 
Votiaks,  318 

Walpurgis,  428 

Wands,  magic,  85,  205,  232 

Water  divinities,  76,  (78),  258,  405, 

423 
folk-lore  of,  75,  405  seq. 
guardianship  of,  404,  407 
king,  420 
living,  75 
monsters,  406 
of  Death,  73 
of  Life,  52  seq.,  241 

and  raven,  (78),  241 

and  dragon,  408 


Water  divinities,  of  Strength,  7 1 
spirit,  392-3,  405-6 
world,  (45),  131-2,  258,  330,  332, 
(397),  418,  420 
Weapons,  magic,  203  seq. 
Weendijoes,  301 
Weeoomben,  182 
Well  -  Intentioned     and     Doiible- 

Minded,  The,  69 
Well  at  Worlds  End,  256 
of  the  World,  54 
sacred,  76,  317,  (317),  (344) 
Werwolf,  144,  161,  185,  (259),  455 
Wer-tiger,  176 
Wife  tabu,  26 

lost,  recovered,  438 
Wise  woman,  19,  185,  323 
Witch,  19,  86,  145-6,  149  seq.,  153, 
161,  179,  184-5,  (195),  197,  200, 
(207),   208,   222-4,   (259),   287, 
294,  299,  303,    323,   343,   412, 
421,  428,  452 
Witchcraft,   African,  5,    10,  146-7, 
(195),  (223) 
in  folk-tales,  19,  185 
Wizard.     See  Medicine-man 
Wollunqua  totem  ceremonies,  398 
Women  abducted  by  animals,  277 
and  serpent,  46.     See  Snake 
and  tabu,  316 
and  wells,  317 
in  primitive  civilisation,  18,  170, 

303 
suckling  animals,  (277) 
World  of  Blessed,  10 

X  region,  32,  37,  85,  208-9,  224 

Yak,  292 
Yakuts,  148 
Youngest  son,  350 

as  villain,  380 
Yucatan,  39 

Zapotecs,  250 
Zeus,  49,  (90),  226 
Zulus,  21,  32,  116,  147,  (200),  207, 
209,  251,  301 


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Oliver  and   Boyd 

Edinburgh 


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